View source for Report of Some Proceedings on the Commission of Oyer and Terminer

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''A Report of Some Proceedings on the Commission of Oyer and Terminer and Goal Delivery for the Trial of the Rebels in the Year 1746 in the County of Surry and of Other Crown Cases. To Which are Added Discourses upon a Few Branches of the Crown Law''}}
===by Sir Michael Foster===
__NOTOC__
{{BookPageInfoBox
|imagename=FosterReportOfProceedings1762.jpg
|link=https://wm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01COWM_INST/g9pr7p/alma991004258609703196
|shorttitle=A Report of Some Proceedings on the Commission of Oyer and Terminer
|commontitle=Foster's Crown Law
|author=[[:Category:Michael Foster|Sir Michael Foster]]
|edition=First
|lang=[[:Category:English|English]]
|publoc=[[:Category:Oxford|Oxford]]
|publisher=Printed at the Clarendon Press, sold by J. Worrall and B. Tovey (London)
|year=1762
|pages=[2], viii, [4], 412, [20]
|desc=[[:Category:Folios|Folio]] (33 cm.)
|shelf=L-5
}}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foster_(English_judge) Sir Michael Foster] (1689-1763), the son of an attorney and member of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_College,_Oxford Exeter College, Oxford], was called to the bar by the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Temple Middle Temple] in 1713.<ref>William Holdsworth, ''A History of English Law'' (London: Methuen & Co., Sweet and Maxwell, 1938), 12:135.</ref> Foster became [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder_%28judge%29 recorder] of Bristol in 1735 and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serjeant-at-law sergeant-at-law] in 1736, and accepted an appointment to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_King%27s_Bench_%28England%29 Court of King's Bench] in 1745.<ref>N. G. Jones, "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9964 Foster, Sir Michael (1689–1763)]," ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 7 June 2013.</ref> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Searle_Holdsworth Holdsworth] praises Foster's reports as "the most remarkable and scholarly of all the reports of this period."<ref>Holdsworth, ''A History of English Law,'' 135.</ref> He later expounds "[t]hey are remarkable in form because he appended learned notes to the cases, and added four very able discourses on various points of Crown law" and they are "remarkable in substance by reason of their author's learning, his clarity of expression, and his accuracy of statement."<ref>Ibid, 136.</ref> Another author describes the reports as being "a work of very high authority."<ref>Edward Foss, ''Biographia Juridica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England from the Conquest to the Present Time, 1066-1870'', (London: John Murray, 1870), 279.</ref>

==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library==
Listed in the [[Jefferson Inventory]] of [[Wythe's Library]] as ''Foster's crown law.'' and given by [[Thomas Jefferson]] to [[Dabney Carr]]. We do not know which edition Wythe owned. The [https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433 Brown Bibliography]<ref> Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433</ref> includes the 1767 third edition based on the copy Thomas Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress in 1815.<ref>E. Millicent Sowerby, ''Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson'', (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 2:295, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015033648109&view=1up&seq=313 [no.1950]]. This copy is signed by Jefferson's son-in-law, [[John Wayles Eppes|J. W. Eppes]].</ref> Barbara Dean suggests the 1762 first edition in her [[Dean Bibliography|bibliographic memo]].<ref>[[Dean Bibliography|Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean]], Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 7 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).</ref> [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe George Wythe's Library]<ref>''LibraryThing'', s.v. [http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe "Member: George Wythe"], accessed on September 16, 2013.</ref> on LibraryThing indicates "Precise edition unknown. Numerous editions were published at Oxford, Dublin and London beginning in 1762." The Wolf Law Library already owned a copy of the first edition (1762) in another rare book collection and moved it to the [[George Wythe Collection]].

==Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy==
Recently rebound in period style. Spine features four bands with gilt rules with green label ''Trial of Rebels''; stamped, "New York University School of Law", on verso of title page. Purchased through the generosity of Daniel W. Baran and Lena Stratton Baran, Class of 1936. 

Images of the library's copy of this book are [https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolflawlibrary/sets/72157637635413643 available on Flickr.] View the record for this book in [https://wm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01COWM_INST/g9pr7p/alma991004258609703196 William & Mary's online catalog.]

==See also==
*[[George Wythe Room]]
*[[Jefferson Inventory]]
*[[Wythe's Library]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Criminal Law]]
[[Category:Dabney Carr's Books]]
[[Category:George Wythe Collection at William & Mary's Wolf Law Library]]
[[Category:Michael Foster]]
[[Category:Titles in Wythe's Library]]

[[Category:English]]
[[Category:Folios]]
[[Category:Oxford]]