Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery (Williams)
by William Peere Williams
William Peere Williams (1664/5–1736) was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1680 and became a member of the bar in 1687.[1] He served as bencher of his inn (1722) and treasurer from 1726 to 1728. William has been credited as "the first full and clear reporter of Chancery cases."[2] Williams' reports were published posthumously by his son. One biographer described them:
His collection of chancery cases was the product of a long professional career, covering the judgments in the court under seven lord chancellors, and the reports have always been regarded as a classical repository of equity jurisprudence in the early eighteenth century. William Peere Williams jun., published the first two volumes in 1740 (second edn, 1746) and the third in 1749, under the title Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, and of some Special Cases Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench. The reason for deferring the publication of the third volume was said in the preface to be the need for further revision and in some cases to supply the final decision from the registrar's decree books. The comparative quality of the third volume has been questioned, but the reports were dedicated to Lord Hardwicke and received his imprimatur, the chancellor contributing his own notes in at least one important case. The whole work has been cited with approval by later judges. The three folio volumes were reprinted in 1768, and their value enhanced by Samuel Compton Cox, who added scholarly notes to the fourth and fifth editions in 1787 and 1793.[3]
Bibliographic Information
Author: William Peere Williams.
Title: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, and of Some Special Cases Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench.
Publication Info: In the Savoy: Printed by E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling (assigns of E. Sayer) for T. Osborne, 1740-1749.
Edition: First edition.
Extent: Three volumes.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
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External Links
References
- ↑ D. E. C. Yale, "Williams, William Peere (1664/5–1736)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 7 Sept 2013. (Subscription required for access.) Subsequent biographical facts also derive from this article.
- ↑ John William Wallace, The Reporters, Arranged and Characterized with Incidental Remarks, 4th ed., rev. and enl., (Boston: Soule and Bugbee, 1882), 499.
- ↑ Yale, "Williams, William Peere (1664/5-1736)."
