Difference between revisions of "Reports de Gulielme Benloe"

Latest revision as of 10:31, 6 February 2024

by William Bendlowes

Bendlowes' Reports
Title page from Les reports de Gulielme Benloe, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	William Bendlowes
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	London: Printed by the assigns of R. and E. Atkins, esquires, for Samuel Keble, Daniel Brown, Isaac Cleave, and William Rogers
Date	1689
Edition	First
Language	French
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	[12], 319, [13]
Desc.	Folio (33 cm.)
Location	Shelf G-5
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

William Bendlowes (1516–1584) studied at St. John's College, wikipedia:Thavies Inn, and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1734.^[1] Five years later, he received a call to the bar.

Covering cases from 1534 to 1579, Bendlowes's reports were widely circulated in manuscript form and "consist largely of Latin pleadings with relatively short French annotations, and constitute, in effect, an annotated book of entries."^[2] According to one commentator, the "unusual but restricted format [of the reports] ... does not entitle them to a particularly high estimation,"^[3] yet, their authority was well known at the time of their publication in 1689.^[4]

Some of the reports complied by Bendlowes can be found in Thomas Ashe's Epieikeia^[5] in the appendix.^[6] A fuller version of Bendlowes's reports, Les Reports de Gulielme Bendloes, Serjeant de la Ley: Des Divers Resolutions et Judgments donne par les Reverendes Judges de la Ley was published in 1661 for Timothy Twyford and became known as "New Benloe." The 1689 edition, considered a better version than 1661, earned the moniker "Old Benloe" perhaps "because it was nearer to the vulgate manuscript texts."^[7]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Brown's Bibliography^[8] includes the first edition (1689) of Dalison's Reports des Divers Special Cases Adjudge en le Court del Common Bank based on notations in the manuscript copy of John Marshall's law notes. According to John William Wallace, the 1689 edition of Dalison's Reports was usually published bound with Les Reports de Gulielme Benloe.^[9] Based on their publication history, Brown lists Bendlowes' Reports in his bibliography and notes that Thomas Jefferson also owned a volume of these reports bound together. The Wolf Law Library purchased a copy of a combined volume of the 1689 editions of Bendlowes' and Dalison's reports.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in full calf; rebacked with original morocco, gilt-tooled label. Boards feature blind rules and filigree corners. Title paged signed "Geo. Kenyon." Bound with William Dalison's Les Reports des Divers Special Cases Adjudge en le Court del Common Bank. Purchased from the Lawbook Exchange.

Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

See also

• George Wythe Room
• Les Reports des Divers Special Cases Adjudge en le Court del Common Bank
• Wythe's Library

References

1. ↑ J. H. Baker, "Bendlowes, William (1516-1584)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed 17 November 2021.
2. ↑ Baker, "Bendlowes, William (1516-1584).
3. ↑ Ibid.
4. ↑ John William Wallace, The Reporters, Arranged and Characterized with Incidental Remarks, 4th ed., rev. and enl. (Boston: Soule and Bugbee, 1882), 116.
5. ↑ Thomas Ashe, Epieikeia et Table Generall a les Annales del Ley, per quel Facilment Troueres touts les Cases Contenus in Yceux; Queux Concerne le Exposition des Statutes per Equitie ( London: Printed by Adam Islip for the Societie of the Stationers, 1609).
6. ↑ Sweet & Maxwell's Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth comp. W. Harold Maxwell and Leslie F. Maxwell, 2nd ed. (London: John Rees, 1989), 1:255. The appendix contains equity cases reported by Bendlowes and Dalison.
7. ↑ Baker, "Bendlowes, William (1516-1584).
8. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012, rev. May, 2014) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
9. ↑ Wallace, The Reporters, 115-116. Wallace writes, "Though published under a joint name, there is no connection that I am aware of between the Reports of Benloe and those of Dalison, except that they were both edited by Mr. Rowe, have a common preface, and are both usually bound in the same volume."