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History of the American Bar (Historical Writings in Law and Jurisprudence)
History of the American Bar - Historical Writings in Law and Jurisprudence Author:Charles Warren Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I ENGLISH LAW, LAW BOOKS AMD LAWYERS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY The slow development of the American lawyer during the Seventeenth Century can har... more »dly be understood, unless the contemporaneous state of the law and of lawyers and of legal education in England is borne in mind. One of the first American-born lawyers to study law in England was Benjamin Lynde of Massachusetts, who was admitted to the Middle Temple Inn, in 1692. At that time, the Common Law as a system to be studied from reported decisions was only about a century old. Those cases which to the modern student are almost his earliest landmarks, were then to be found in reports published only a few years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Thus, Shelley's case (i Coke 93) had been decided in 1579-1581; Thorogood's case (2 Coke 9), on fraud in the execution of a deed, in 1582; Spencer's case (5 Coke 16), in 1583; Calye's case (8 Coke 32), on the liability of innkeepers, in 1584; Slade's case (4 Coke 91), which established the use of the action on the case upon assumpsit in place of debt, in 1603; Twyne's case (3 Coke 80), on gifts in fraud of creditors, had been decided in 1601; Dumpor's case (4 Coke 119), on waiver of forfeiture, in 1603; Lopus v. Chandelor (Cro. Jac. i), the Bezoar Stone case on warranties, in 1604; Semayne's case (5 Coke 91), on sheriff's liability, in 1605; the Six Carpenters case, or Vaux v. Newman (8 Coke 146), on trespass ab initio, in 1611; the Sullon Hospital case (10 Coke i), on corporations, in 1612;Lampleigh v. BraitJtwait (Hobart 105), on consideration in assumpsit, in 1616; Afanby v. Scott (x Lev. 4), on a wife's contract, in 1659. While the Common Law on its civil side had begun, by j 1620, to provide fairly complete and even-handed justice [ as between one privat...« less