A Digested Index of the Reported Cases Adjudged in the Courts.

Raleigh, [N.C.]: Printed for Dirk Lindeman, 1826. The Foundation of North Carolina Case Law: Hawks's Scarce 1826 Legal Digest, with Distinguished New Bern Provenance Hawks, Francis L. [1798-1866], Digester. [Lilly, Lambert]. A Digested Index of the Reported Cases Adjudged in the Courts of North-Carolina, From the Year 1778 to 1826. Raleigh: Printed for Dirk Lindeman, 1826. First edition. Octavo, 8" x 5"; (20 x 13 cm). vii, 502 pp. Contemporary sheep, blind fillets to boards, leather lettering piece to spine. Moderate scuffing to boards, wear to spine ends and corners. Front cover detached. Rear joints cracked but board secure. Faint early ownership stamp ("David Bell") to front board; early ownership inscription ("W.H. Washington, Esq. / Solicitor / Newbern / Nov. 12th 1839") to front free endpaper; embossed notarial seal ("Robert F. Lehman / Newbern") to title page. Text uniformly toned with light foxing throughout. A very good, sound copy. $450. * This volume stands as the foundational case law digest for the state of North Carolina, operating as the primary legal tool utilized by antebellum attorneys to navigate early state precedents. Compiled while Francis L. Hawks was serving as the official North Carolina state reporter, the text systematically index-digests state judicial reports stretching from Martin through Hawks. While early, erroneous bibliographies occasionally attribute this work to the pseudonym "Lambert Lilly" (a pen name Hawks adopted much later for a popular series of children's history books) the compilation represents his definitive early legal scholarship. This specific copy boasts an unbroken, historically significant chain of legal provenance linking it directly to the judicial elite of New Bern, a vital early North Carolina legal hub. The 1839 presentation inscription documents the ownership of William Henry Washington, a prominent New Bern attorney, state solicitor, and subsequent Whig U.S. Congressman. The later embossed seal marks its transition into the library of federal judge and state senator Robert F. Lehman. This volume survives as a scarce and representative artifact from the foundational era of American regional jurisprudence. An important, scarce artifact of early American jurisprudence. Cohen 5583. OCLC locates only 5 copies in North American law libraries (LC, Duke, UNC, UVA, Wake Forest).…