Difference between revisions of "Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown"

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<blockquote>[Hawkins] is best known in the legal profession for his ''Pleas of the Crown'' (1716–21), a copy of which he presented to Oriel. This treatise may indeed have been his principal qualification for the coif. It was the first substantial exposition of English criminal law to be printed since that by Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), and it represented a distinct advance in terms of analysis and detail. The masterpiece by Sir Matthew Hale (1609–1676), the ''Historia placitorum coronae'', was not published until 1736, and even then it did not supplant Hawkins, being an earlier composition. In the third edition of Hawkins, in 1739, references to Hale were inserted by G. L. Scott. Posthumous editions appeared in 1762, 1771 (by Thomas Leach), 1787, 1795, and 1824 (by John Curwood), and a summary was published in 1728 (second edition 1770). Hawkins also produced a new edition of the Statutes at Large in 1734–35, which was soon superseded by the edition of John Cay and Owen Ruffhead. <ref> J. H. Baker, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12687 "Hawkins, William (1681/2–1750)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 7 June 2013. (Subscription required for access.)</ref></blockquote>
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''A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown'' was written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hawkins_(serjeant-at-law) William Hawkins] (1681-1750).<ref>J. H. Baker, [http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.wm.edu/view/article/12687 "Hawkins, William (1681/2–1750)"] in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed Oct. 12, 2013]</ref> It represented an advancement in both analysis and in detail when compared to the last substantial exposition of English criminal law, written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coke Sir Edward Coke] (1552-1634).<ref>Ibid.</ref> Hawkins is best known in the legal profession for this treatise, and some have gone so far as to suggest that it was Hawkins' principal qualification for the coif.<ref>Ibid.</ref><br >
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Hawkins was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1700 or 1701; confusion exists due to another man on the records sharing his name.<ref>Humphry W. Woolrych. Lives of Eminent Serjeants-at-Law of the English Bar (Wm. H. Allen & Co, 1869), 513.</ref> In 1707 Hawkins was called to the bar, he later served as deputy chief justice of the Brecon circuit in 1719, and in 1724 he advanced to the rank of serjeant-at-law.<ref>Baker, "Hawkins, William."</ref> He started writing on legal matters in 1711, and in addition to the aforementioned treatise, he also wrote an abridgement of Coke upon Littleton, and a new edition of the Statutes at Large.<ref>Ibid.</ref>
  
 
==Bibliographic Information==
 
==Bibliographic Information==

Revision as of 19:43, 12 October 2013

by William Hawkins

A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown was written by William Hawkins (1681-1750).[1] It represented an advancement in both analysis and in detail when compared to the last substantial exposition of English criminal law, written by Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634).[2] Hawkins is best known in the legal profession for this treatise, and some have gone so far as to suggest that it was Hawkins' principal qualification for the coif.[3]

Hawkins was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1700 or 1701; confusion exists due to another man on the records sharing his name.[4] In 1707 Hawkins was called to the bar, he later served as deputy chief justice of the Brecon circuit in 1719, and in 1724 he advanced to the rank of serjeant-at-law.[5] He started writing on legal matters in 1711, and in addition to the aforementioned treatise, he also wrote an abridgement of Coke upon Littleton, and a new edition of the Statutes at Large.[6]

Bibliographic Information

Author: William Hawkins.

Title: A Treatise Of The Pleas Of The Crown, Or, A System Of The Principal Matters Relating To That Subject: Digested Under Their Proper Heads.

Published: London, In the Savoy: Printed by Eliz. Nutt, (executrix of J. Nutt, assignee of E. Sayer, esq;) for J. Walthoe and J. Walthoe, jun., 1716-1726.

Edition: First edition, volume one; second edition, volume two; two volumes.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Hawkin's P. C. fol. and given by Thomas Jefferson to Dabney Carr. We do not know which edition Wythe owned. The Brown Bibliography[7] includes the first edition while George Wythe's Library[8] on LibraryThing indicates "Precise edition unknown. Folio editions (in two volumes) were published at London in 1716-21, 1724, 1739 and 1762."

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

View volume one and volume two of this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

External Links

Google Books

References

  1. ↑ J. H. Baker, "Hawkins, William (1681/2–1750)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed Oct. 12, 2013]
  2. ↑ Ibid.
  3. ↑ Ibid.
  4. ↑ Humphry W. Woolrych. Lives of Eminent Serjeants-at-Law of the English Bar (Wm. H. Allen & Co, 1869), 513.
  5. ↑ Baker, "Hawkins, William."
  6. ↑ Ibid.
  7. ↑ 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
  8. ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on September 16, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
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