The Reports of Sir Bartholomew Shower, Knt. of Cases Adjudg'd in the Court of King's Bench, in the Reign of His Late Majesty King William III, With Several Learned Arguments

by Sir Bartholomew Shower

Shower's King's Bench Reports
Title page from The Reports of Sir Bartholomew Shower, volume one, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Sir Bartholomew Shower
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	London: Printed by the assigns of Richard and Edward Atkins, Esqs; for Danial Borwne and J. Walthoe
Date	1708-1720
Edition	First
Language	English
Volumes	2 volume set
Pages	{{{pages}}}
Desc.	Folio (32 cm.)
Location	Shelf F-5
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

Frontispiece, volume two.

Sir Bartholomew Shower (1658–1701) was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1676 and called to the bar in 1680. In 1688, he was named king's counsel, then later the same year appointed to the bench. In 1698, Shower was chosen as one of Exeter's members for Parliament and became a dominant tory voice in the Commons. Shower's King's Bench reports derive from his manuscript notes but were published posthumously. "It is probable that these Cases were printed from the 'foul copy' of the Reporter" and were not the finished product Shower meant to publish. As a result, the first two editions of the reports have been widely criticized. A third edition, published in 1836 and based on a manuscript in the Lansdowne collection, has a more favorable reputation and appears to represent the collection Shower originally intended to print.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

There is no doubt that George Wythe owned this title—a copy of the first edition at the Library of Congress includes Wythe's armorial bookplate. We also know that Thomas Jefferson listed the title as "Shower’s [rep] 2.v. fol." in his inventory of Wythe's Library, noting that he kept the volume himself. He later sold it to the Library of Congress. Not surprisingly, all four of the Wythe Collection sources (Goodwin's pamphlet, Dean's Memo, Brown's Bibliography and George Wythe's Library on LibraryThing) list the first edition of Shower's King's Bench Reports. The Wolf Law Library moved a copy of the first edition from another rare book collection to the George Wythe Collection.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary blind calf, rebacked with red spine labels. Each volume includes a previous owner's signature on the title page. Marginal notes of previous owner in both volumes Purchased through the generosity of Daniel W. Baran and Lena Stratton Baran, Class of 1936.

View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

See also

• George Wythe Room
• Wythe's Library