View source for General Abridgment of Cases in Equity

{{DISPLAYTITLE: ''A General Abridgment of Cases in Equity''}}
<big>''A General Abridgment of Cases in Equity: Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery, &c.''</big>
__NOTOC__
{{BookPageInfoBox
|imagename=ChanceryCasesInEquity1756v1.jpg
|link=https://catalog.swem.wm.edu/law/Record/2079822
|shorttitle=A General Abridgment of Cases in Equity
|vol=volume one
|author=Attributed variously to Robert Foley, Sir Geoffrey Gilbert, Matthew Bacon, and Henry Pooley
|edition=Fourth
|lang=English
|publoc=In the Savoy
|publisher=H. Lintot
|year=1756
|set=2
|desc=Folio (37 cm.)
}}Considered the "most important" of the equity abridgments of the eighteenth century,<ref>W. S. Holdsworth, ''A History of English Law'', (London: Methuen & Co., Sweet and Maxwell, 1938), 12:171.</ref> ''Equity Cases Abridged'' was mostly likely written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Bacon Matthew Bacon], author of [[New Abridgment of the Law|''A New Abridgment of the Law'']]. "The evidence for this fact is partly indirect&mdash;cases from ''Equity Cases Abridged'' are copied literally in Bacon's ''Abridgment''; and partly direct&mdash;Sir William Lee stated in his copy of ''Equity Cases Abridged'' that it was written by Bacon."<ref>Holdsworth, ''A History of English Law'', 172.</ref> Others have attributed at least the first volume to Henry Pooley.<ref>John William Wallace, ''The Reporters, Arranged and Characterized with Incidental Remarks'', 4th ed., rev. and enl., (Boston: Soule and Bugbee, 1882), 490.</ref> The two volumes enjoy divergent reputations. The cases in volume one "are reported by a good lawyer, who understood perfectly well the decisions he was reporting; and the volume often renders clear and sensible cases which in Vernon are unintelligible or very improbable."<ref>Wallace, ''The Reporters'', 491.</ref> The second volume "stands less well than the 1st. It was spoken of disrespectfully ..."<ref>Ibid.</ref>

==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library==
Listed in the [[Jefferson Inventory]] of [[Wythe's Library]] as "Ca. in Eq.abridged. 2.v. fol." and given by [[Thomas Jefferson]] to [[Dabney Carr]]. The 1756 edition is the first two volume folio edition, although we cannot be certain which edition Wythe owned. Three of the [[George Wythe Collection|Wythe Collection]] sources ([[Dean Bibliography|Dean's Memo]]<ref>[[Dean Bibliography|Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean]], Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 7 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).</ref>, Brown's Bibliography<ref>Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433</ref> and [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s. v. [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe "Member: George Wythe"], accessed on June 28, 2013.</ref> on LibraryThing) list the 1756 (fourth) edition, which is the one acquired by the Wolf Law Library.

==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy==
Bound in contemporary calf with tooled edge on cover near spine. Rebacked in period-style calf with red morocco, gilt-lettered labels.

View this book in [https://catalog.swem.wm.edu/law/Record/2079822 William & Mary's online catalog.]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Abridgments]]
[[Category:Case Reports]]
[[Category:George Wythe Collection at William & Mary's Wolf Law Library]]
[[Category:Titles in Wythe's Library]]

==External Links==
[http://books.google.com/books?id=bn42AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22A+General+Abridgment+of+Cases+in+Equity%22+1756&hl=en&sa=X&ei=djICU-qeH8WTyQHM1IGgAQ&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false Google Books Vol. I]
[http://books.google.com/books?id=3fo2AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22A%20General%20Abridgment%20of%20Cases%20in%20Equity%22%201756&source=gbs_similarbooks Google Books Vol. II]