The Court-Keepers Guide: Or, A Plain and Familiar Treatise, Needful...
The "Longest Lived" Treatise on Courts Leet and Baron Sheppard, William [d.1675?]. Browne, William, Editor. The Court-Keepers Guide for the Keeping of Courts-Leet and Courts- Baron: Wherein Is Largely and Plainly Opened. The Jurisdiction of These Courts, with the Learning of Manors, Copyholds, Rents, Harriots, and Other Services and Advantages Belonging unto Manors; Shewing the Lord's Due and the Tenant's Duty. Usefull for All Persons Concerned in Copyhold Estates. Whereunto are Added Precedents of Copies of Court- Rolls, With Other Additions. London: Printed by the Assigns of Rich. Atkins, and Edw. Atkins, 1685. [viii], 278, [4], 279-284 pp. Table of contents, which should precede p.1, misbound between pp, 278 and 279. Precedents of Copies preceded by divisional title page. Complete. Octavo (5-3/4" x 3-3/4"). Contemporary sheep with early rebacking, blind rules with corner fleurons to boards, raised bands to spine. A few minor scuffs to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing to a few leaves, early owner signature (William Williams/ October 8, 1781) to front endleaf. A handsome copy. $400. * Seventh edition. Holdsworth observes: "[t]here was still a considerable amount of works to be done by [the courts leet and baron]. The common field system of agriculture needed regulation; the rights and duties of copy-holders were matters for the manorial court to determine, subject to the control of the courts of common law; and statutes of this period had assigned new duties to the leet. Thus a want was felt for something more than the single stereotyped tract which various publishers went on issuing from the press during the first half of this century. (...) [T]he longest lived...was the Court Keeper's Guide of William Sheppard, first published in 1641 and re- issued as late as 1791.": Holdsworth, A History of English Law IV:120-121. English Short-Title Catalogue R24529.
Price: $400.00
Book number 72781