Reports of Cases Decreed in the High Court of Chancery
by Heneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham
Heneage Finch, first Earl of Nottingham, (1621–1682) was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1638 and called to the bar in 1645.[1] After spending time as solicitor-general and attorney-general, Finch was appointed lord chancellor in 1675. William Nelson compiled and edited Reports of Cases Decreed in the High Court of Chancery, During the Time Sir Heneage Finch from cases decided by Finch from 1673 to 1681. Nelson's compilation has been heavily criticized. One biographer of Nottingham wrote that the reports "are miserably executed, containing a defective narrative of the facts,—hardly any statement of the points made by counsel or the authorities relied on,—and, without the reasons of the Judge, giving only an abstract of the Decree ..."[2] Another wrote "the highest authorities" all "speak of the book disparagingly."[3] The quality of the reports is unfortunate as Holdsworth has described Lord Nottingham's "analyses of complicated facts are masterly, both for their minuteness, and for the clearness with which the results of the analysis are stated. He can enunciate a principle, and reason from it closely and logically ..."[4] Even Blackstone wrote that Nottingham "was a person of the greatest abilities and most uncorrupted integrity; a thorough master and zealous defender of the laws and constitution of his country; and endued with a pervading genius, that enabled him to discover and pursue the true spirit of justice ..."[5]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Heneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham.
Title: Reports of Cases Decreed in the High Court of Chancery, During the Time Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, was Lord Chancellor, in Many of Which Decrees He was Assisted by Some of the Judges of the Common Law.
Publication Info: In the Savoy: Printed for E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling (assigns of E. Sayer) for R. Gosling, 1725.
Edition: First edition; 480 pages.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in sheep-backed boards. Purchased from Meyer Boswell Books, Inc.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ D. E. C. Yale, "Finch, Heneage, first earl of Nottingham (1621–1682)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 30 May 2013. (Subscription required for access.) Subsequent biographical information derives from this article unless otherwise noted.
- ↑ John Campbell, Baron Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England: from the Earliest Times till the Reign of Queen Victoria, 7th ed. (New York : Cockcroft & Company, 1878), 4:225.
- ↑ John William Wallace, The Reporters, Arranged and Characterized with Incidental Remarks, 4th ed., rev. and enl. (Boston: Soule and Bugbee, 1882), 488.
- ↑ W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law (London: Methuen & Co., Sweet and Maxwell, 1924), 6:543.
- ↑ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, 1768), 3:55.
