The Law of Obligations and Conditions
by Thomas Ashe
The Law of Obligations and Conditions is attributed to Thomas Ashe (c.1556–1618),[1] an English lawyer and legal writer, although on the book's title page its author is accredited only as 'T.A.'.[2]
Ashe was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1574.[3] He was called to the bar on January 24, 1583 and was raised to the status of Ancient of the Inn in 1589.[4] In 1588 his first work, A Table to the Reports of Sir James Dyer, was published, and was successful enough to be reprinted in 1600 and 1622. This was followed by An Abridgement of Edmund Plowden's Commentaries (1597?; repr., 1607). In 1605 he published a table to the first five volumes of Edward Coke's Reports, dedicated to Coke. This volume was subsequently expanded to cover the full eleven volumes of Coke's Reports published in his lifetime (1618; repr., 1652). 4. Ashe then used Coke's Reports to produce Fasciculus Florum, or, A Handfull of Flowers Gathered Out of the Severall Bookes of the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Coke (1617). From these books and other reports, Ashe also compiled a collection of cases in which laws had been extended by equitable interpretation, organizing these and publishing them in 1609 under the title Epieikeia. 5. Five years later, in 1614, he described himself as 'Professor' of the law on the title page to his most popular work, Le Primer (second) Volume del Promptuarie. 3. This was an analytical index to the yearbooks, and was well received by the legal profession. 1. Ashe retained his connections with Gray's Inn throughout his life, as legal writing did not pay as well as legal practice. 1. He was given an entitlement to free commons at the inn in 1614 while overseeing the production of his Promptuarie, and in 1617 he was granted an annual pension of £5 on account of his indigence. 6. He died at Gray's Inn in 1618, seemingly without any family. His administration, dated October 20, valued his estate at £5 10s., but noted him as a 'pauper'. 7.
Bibliographic Information
Author: Thomas Ashe.
Title: The Law of Obligations and Conditions, or, an Accurate Treatise, Wherein Is Contained the Whole Learning of the Law Concerning Bills, Bonds, Conditions, Statutes, Recognizances, and Defeasances...: to Which Is Added a Table of References to All the Declarations and Pleadings Upon Bonds, &c. Now Extant: Also Another Table to the Forms of Special Conditions Which Lie Scattered In Our President [sic] Books...: With an Index of the Principal Matters Therein Contained.
Publication Info: London: Printed for J. Walthoe, 1693.
Edition: .
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
External Links
References
- ↑ David Ibbetson, "Ashe, Thomas (c.1556–1618)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed December 4, 2013.
- ↑ Thomas Ashe, The Law of Obligations and Conditions London: J. Walthoe, 1693
- ↑ Joseph Foster, The Register of Admissions to Gray’s Inn, 1521–1889 (London: Hansard Publishing Union, 1889), 47.
- ↑ W.H. Maxwell, A Bibliography of English Law to 1650 (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1925),
