Difference between revisions of "Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery"

Revision as of 09:29, 1 August 2013

by Thomas Vernon

Thomas Vernon was a law reporter and politician who supported the government in the House of Commons.

Vernon's will was the subject of some contention in chancery, a dispute arising over the fate of his manuscript notes on chancery cases between 1681 and 1719. His widow claimed them as part of the ‘household goods and furniture’ which she had been left; the trustees claimed them as part of the residuary estate, as they had been left ‘the residue of my personal estate’; and the heir, Bowater Vernon, claimed them as the guardian of the reputation of the testator. Lord Chancellor Macclesfield decided the case by retaining the manuscripts in order to have them printed under the court's direction without making any profit. Under the direction of Macclesfield and then Lord King they were published as Cases argued and adjudged in the high court of chancery, published from the manuscripts of Thomas Vernon in 1726–8 under the editorship of William Melmoth, the elder, and William Peere Williams. This edition was found to be so full of errors and discrepancies that, at the suggestion of Lord Eldon, a new and far superior edition was brought out in 1806–7 by John Raithby. A further edition appeared in 1828.^[1]

Bibliographic Information

Author: Thomas Vernon

Title: Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery

Publication Info: London, In the Savoy: Printed by E. and R. Nutt and R. Gosling (assigns of Edw. Sayer) for J. Tonson, 1726-28.

Edition:

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

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

References

1. ↑ Stuart Handley, ‘Vernon, Thomas (1654–1721)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 30 May 2013