Adams Papers

Paine’s Minutes of Samuel Quincy’s Argument for The Crown: 25 October 1770

Paine’s Minutes of Samuel Quincy’s Argument for The Crown1

25 October 1770

Mr. Quincy.

3 Inst. 472

4 Black 195. Definition of Murder3

1 Haw. p. 80. §18. What killing of Malice prepense.4

1 H.H. 4515

F. 261 §36

3 Inst. 627

Key. 127. “He [that] doth a cruel act voluntarily doth it of Malice prepense.”8

1Paine Massacre Notes. See Descriptive List of Sources and Documents.

23 Coke, Institutes description begins Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England; concerning High Treason and other Pleas of the Crown, and Criminall Causes, London, 1644. description ends *47, discusses murder, and is paraphrased in the footnote next following.

34 Blackstone, Commentaries description begins William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Oxford, 1765–1769; 4 vols. description ends *195: “Murder is . . . ’when a person, of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being and under the king’s peace, with malice aforethought, either express or implied.”

41 Hawkins, Pleas of the Crown description begins William Hawkins, A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown, 4th edn., London, 1762; 2 vols. description ends 80, c. 31, §18:

“[A]ny formed Design of doing Mischief may be called Malice; and therefore . . . not such killing only as proceeds from premeditated Hatred or Revenge against the Person killed, but also in many other Cases, such as is accompanied with those Circumstances that shew the Heart to be perversly wicked, is adjudged to be of Malice prepense, and consequently Murder.”

51 Hale, Pleas of the Crown description begins Matthew Hale, Historia Placitorum Coronse: The History of the Pleas of the Crown, London, 1736; 2 vols. description ends 451, discusses malice.

6Foster, Crown Cases description begins Michael Foster, 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, Oxford, 1762. description ends 261, §3, distinguishes murder, manslaughter, and accidental death.

73 Coke, Institutes description begins Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England; concerning High Treason and other Pleas of the Crown, and Criminall Causes, London, 1644. description ends *62: “Malice prepensed. That is, voluntary and of set purpose, though it be done upon a sudden occasion: for if it be voluntary, the law implieth malice.”

8Reg. v. Mawgridge, Kelyng description begins John Kelyng, Report of divers Cases in Pleas of the Crown, with Directions for Justices of the Peace, 2d edn., London, 1739. description ends 119, 127, 84 Eng. Rep. description begins The English Reports; 176 vols. A collection and translation into English of all the early English reporters. description ends 1107, 1111 (Q.B. 1707). Quotation marks supplied.

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