Modus Intrandi Placita Generalia: the Entring Clerk's Introduction: Being a Collection of Such Precedents of Declarations, and Other Pleadings, with Process as well Mesn as Judicial, as are Generally Used in Every Days Practice
by William Brown
| Modus Intrandi Placita Generalia | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | William Brown | |
| Published | London: Printed by the assigns of R. and Edw. Atkins Esquires for J. Walthoe ... | |
| Date | 1702-1703 | |
| Language | English | |
| Desc. | 8vo. | |
William Brown (fl. 1671-1705) was an English legal clerk and writer, little known aside from producing several manuals and compendiums in the late seventeenth century. His place and date of birth and the circumstances of his childhood are unknown. Brown likely took up his clerkship shortly after the Restoration and held that position until at least as late as 1704.[1] Because this was not a high status position, he most likely did not receive his education at any of the Inns of Court.[2] His date of death is unknown but there is some evidence indicating that he died in October of 1712[3]
As with most of Brown's other works, Modus Intrandi Placita Generalia was a compendium of precedent and tutorials meant to aid aspiring clerks.[4] Law books of this era were often seen as prompts to aid in the recollection of common law precedent.[5] Brown wrote in the preface that Modus would serve as a "constant help to their memories upon all occasions."[6] George Read, a United States Senator and signer of the Declaration of Independence, is known to have ordered two copies in 1762, one Latin and one English, for his extensive legal library[7]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Thomas Jefferson listed "Brown’s Modus intrandi. 2.v. 8vo." in his inventory of Wythe's Library in the section of titles he kept for himself. He later sold a copy of the 1702-1703 edition to the Library of Congress in 1815.[8] Unfortunately, this copy no longer survives to establish Wythe's prior ownership. Both Brown's Bibliography[9] and George Wythe's Library[10] on LibraryThing include the 1702-1703 edition and mention the missing Library of Congress copy.
As yet, the Wolf Law Library has been unable to obtain a copy of Brown's Modus Intrandi Placita Generalia.
References
- ↑ Stuart Handley, "Brown, William (fl. 1671–1705)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed December 6, 2013.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Richard J. Ross, "The Memorial Culture of Early Modern English Lawyers: Memory as Keyword, Shelter, and Identity, 1650-1640," Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 10 (1998): 279.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Howell J. Heaney, ed., "Signer of the Declaration of Independence Orders Books from London: Two Documents of George Read of Delaware in the Hampton L. Carson Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia," American Journal of Legal History 2 (1958): 172.
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 2:270 [no.1885].
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012, revised May, 2014) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
- ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on May 14, 2015.
