Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery
by Thomas Vernon
Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery | |
Title page from Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery, volume two, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
Author | Thomas Vernon |
Published | London, In the Savoy: Printed by E. and R. Nutt and R. Gosling (assigns of Edw. Sayer) for J. Tonson |
Date | 1726-28 |
Language | English |
Volumes | 2 volume set |
Desc. | 33 cm. |
Thomas Vernon (1654-1721) was one of the preeminent practitioners in chancery cases of his day and a politician in the House of Commons.[1] He was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1672 and called to the bar in 1679.[2] In 1680 he married Mary Keck, daughter of one of the day’s leading chancery counselors, a union which helped his career in the same field.[3]
He amassed great wealth from his labors, enabling him to spend £62,000 on land between 1685 and 1717.[4] He also engaged in politics, becoming a knight of the shire in 1715.[5] He remained active in chancery until his death and was the thirteenth busiest practitioner the year before his death.[6]
His reports were published posthumously, the manuscript of which was the subject of some controversy.[7] After his death, his wife, his trustees, and his heirs claimed the papers as their own.[8] Ultimately, the court decided to keep and publish the papers without collecting profit from the work.[9] Scholars consider the first edition of the work, of which George Wythe had a copy, to be so full of error that it is nearly useless.[10] Later editions correct the mistakes from the first edition and are considered the “best of the old Chancery reporters,” however, “unless they are read with scrupulous attention, they may prove to be dangerous guides.”[11]
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References
- ↑ Stuart Handley, “Vernon, Thomas (1654–1721)”, “Oxford Dictionary of National Biography”, (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed 22 Nov 2013.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ J. G. Marvin, Legal Bibliography or a Thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch Law Books (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, Law Booksellers, 1847) 709.
- ↑ Ibid.