Entring Clerk's Vade Mecum
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, with Notes and Observations Thereupon Composed, for the Benefit of the Students of the Common Law of England, as also of the Attorneys, Entring Clerks, and Sollicitors of the Courts of Common Pleas and King's Bench
by William Brown
| Modus Intrandi Placita Generalia | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | William Brown | |
| Published | London: R. and Edw. Atkins, Esquires | |
| Date | 1702-1703 | |
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 passed 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] Lawbooks 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 will 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, one Latin and one English, for his extensive legal library in 1762 [7].
London: Printed by the assigns of R. and Edw. Atkins Esquires for J. Walthoe ..., 1702-1703.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
References
- ↑ Stuart Handley, ‘Brown, William (fl. 1671–1705)’, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", (Oxford University Press, 2004) accessed 6 Dec 2013.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ 10 Yale J.L. & Human. 279 (1998)
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ 2 Am. J. Legal Hist. 172 (1958)
External Links
See bookplate in Google Books
