Institutes of Natural Law
by Thomas Rutherforth
Thomas Rutherforth (1712-1771) was an English moral philosopher, regius professor of divinity at Cambridge, and archdeacon of Essex.[1] Rutherforth taught physical science privately at Cambridge and he had a strong interest in natural and moral philosophy.[2] His lectures on the topic were ultimately published as the Institutes of Natural Law in two volumes in 1754 and 1756, respectively.[3] The work "draws heavily on Grotius and considers morality chiefly in terms of its social consequences."[4] "Institutes of Natural Law was a work widely read and cited among those of the founding generation" of the United States.[5] In fact, the founders relied on the treatise while creating and ratifying the Constitution; the work was also used in early legal education in the United States and as authority in actual cases.[6]
Rutherforth’s work brought him recognition and career advancement. He served as chaplain to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and later the princess dowager for a time. He married Charlotte Elizabeth Abdy whose father was Sir William Abdy, fourth baronet of Albyns,[7] and became regius chair of divinity at Cambridge in 1756.[8]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Thomas Rutherforth, (1712-1771)
Title: Institutes of Natural Law: Being the Substance of a Course of Lectures on Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis
Published: Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham, printer to the University, for W. Thurlbourn, bookseller in Cambridge, 1754-1756.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary calf; the Newton Hall set with the ownership signatures "Babington." Purchased from Meyer Boswell Books, Inc.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ William Holdsworth, A History of English Law (London: Methuen & Co., Sweet and Maxwell, 1938), 12:643.
- ↑ John Gascoigne, “Rutherforth, Thomas (1712–1771)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed October 21, 2013.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Gary L. McDowell, “The Limits of Natural Law: Thomas Rutherforth and the American Legal Tradition”, The American Journal of Jurisprudence 37 (1992): 58, accessed Oct. 21, 2013.
- ↑ McDowell, “The Limits of Natural Law: Thomas Rutherforth and the American Legal Tradition,” 59-60.
- ↑ Gascoigne, John, “Rutherforth, Thomas.”
- ↑ Ibid.
