The Young Clerk's Vade Mecum, Or, Compleat Law-Tutor, Being a Useful..
Revolution-Era New York Edition of a Popular JP Manual [Justice of the Peace Manual]. The Young Clerk's Vade Mecum: Or, Compleat Law-Tutor. Being a Useful Collection of a Great Variety of the Most Approved Precedents in the Law, And Adapted to Almost Every Transaction in Life Wherein an Attention to Legal Forms is Indispensably Necessary. And Consisting Chiefly of Bonds, Special Conditions, Letters of Attorney, Awards, Articles of Agreement, Bills of Sale, Contracts, Covenants, Charter Parties, Leases, Proceedings upon Distress for Rent, Assignments, Deeds, Indentures, Mortgages, Marriage Articles, Wills, Fines and Recoveries, Writs, Declarations and Proceedings at Law. To Which is Added, A Collection of English Precedents, Relating to the Office of a Justice of Peace. Belfast Printed: New-York, Re-Printed by H. Gaine, In Hanover-Square, 1776. [xii], 236; iv, 86, [10] pp. Two parts, each with title page and individual pagination. The title part for the second part reads (in part): A Collection of English Precedents, Relating to the Office of a Justice of Peace. Final two leaves are publisher advertisements. 12mo. (6-1/4" x 4"). Recent period-style calf, raised bands and retained early lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. A few minor scuffs to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, joints and front hinge starting at ends, corners bumped, crack in text block between rear endleaf and free endpaper. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing in a few places, faint early owner signature (John Forbus) to title page. $950. * Later edition. "In those days, when anyone who was anybody was a judge, and most of those who were not quite anybodies were justices of the peace, a vademecum...was an essential tool..." (Cohen). Alphabetically organized with forms for pleading, this popular work, derived from an English manual first published in 1723, covers topics such as bonds, bills of sale, grants, indentures and wills. The final edition was printed in Dublin in 1795. Gaine's edition is a reprint of an edition published in Belfast in 1771. (He also issued the second part as an independent title.) It is a scarce edition, especially in commerce; the last two copies appeared at auction in 2019 and 1941. Cohen, "Historical Development of the American Lawyer's Library," 61 Law Library Journal (1968) 440, 445. E.
Price: $950.00
Book number 74638