Les Reports des Divers Special Cases

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Les Reports Des Divers Special Cases: Adjudge en Le Court Del Common Bank en Les Reignes de Les Tres Hault & Excellent Princes Hen. VIII. Edw. VI. Et Les Reignes Mar. & Eliz

by William Dalison

Dalison's Reports
George Wythe bookplate.jpg
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library
at the College of William & Mary.
 
Author William Dalison
Editor
Translator
Published London:
Date 1689
Edition First
Language
Volumes volume set
Pages
Desc.


William Dalison was a seventeenth century judge and law reporter. He was the second son of William Dalison of Lincolnshire, who was also in the legal profession. After following his father to Gray’s Inn in 1534, Dalison’s career began a rapid ascent. He was called to the bar by as early as 1537, and became a reader by 1548. As his career progressed he developed a reputation for being a being a very learned lawyer [1]. In October of 1552 he became a sarjeant at law, at which time he was still likely under the age of forty. In November of 1552 he was made a judge on the queen’s bench and was reappointed to that position after Mary I’s death in 1558. He served one more term before passing away in January of 1559. [2]

In addition to his legal duties, Dalison was elected representative of Lincoln county in the parliament in 1554 [3].


Les Reports is a court reporter covering many of the cases presided over by William Dalison, a justice of the queen’s bench during the reigns of Mary I and briefly Elizabeth I. Some of the cases reported are from before his appointment, including several from the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI [4]. It includes a large collection of cases argued in closed sessions of Sarjeants’ Inn [5] . One of these cases is amongst the earliest references to a judicial decision on the authority of royal proclamations on record [6] Several of the cases reported are landmark decisions in the history of criminal law [7] . Dalison’s case reports, when read in conjunction with the reports of other contemporary judges, were considered to be a valuable record of the cases of his time Anderson, Edmund. [8]. It should be noted that Dalison’s authorship of the work is somewhat questionable, as several of the cases reported occurred after his death [9] . The Selden Society references the case reports as being either authored by Dalison or fellow judge Richard Harpur, who died in 1577 [10]; <refJ. H. Baker, "Harpur, Richard (d. 1577)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 March 2015</ref>. Additionally, Harpur’s own reports were often mixed with Dalison’s in the printed versions of their reports, meaning that even the authorship of the cases during Dalison’s lifetime cannot be fully verified [11] .

In addition to Wythe, United States Senator and Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court George Read also owned a copy of Les Reports. [12]


Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

References

  1. Anderson, Edmund. "Biographical Notices of The Judges Under the Reign of Elizabeth." Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law 5 (1857): 445-553. [1].
  2. J. H. Baker, "Dalison, William (d. 1559)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 March 2015.
  3. Anderson, Edmund. "Biographical Notices of The Judges Under the Reign of Elizabeth." Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law 5 (1857): 445-553. [2].
  4. Marvin, J. G. A Thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch Law Books. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: T. and J. W. Johnson, Law Booksellers, 1847.
  5. J. H. Baker, "Dalison, William (d. 1559)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 March 2015.
  6. Heinze, Rudolph W. The Proclamations of the Tudor Kings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. [3].
  7. J. H. Baker, "Dalison, William (d. 1559)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 March 2015.
  8. "Biographical Notices of The Judges Under the Reign of Elizabeth." Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law 5 (1857): 445-553. [4].
  9. J. H. Baker, "Dalison, William (d. 1559)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 March 2015.
  10. "Biographical Notices of The Judges Under the Reign of Elizabeth." Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law 5 (1857): 445-553. [5].
  11. J. H. Baker, "Dalison, William (d. 1559)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 March 2015.
  12. Heaney, Howell, ed. "A Signer of the Declarato of Independence Orders Boks from London." The American Journal of Legal History 2 (1972): 172. [6].

External Links

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