Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Thomas Jefferson to Dabney C. Terrell, 26 February 1821

To Dabney C. Terrell

Monticello Feb. 26. 21.

Dear Sir

While you were in this neighborhood, you mentioned to me your intention of studying the law, and asked my opinion as to the sufficient course of reading. I gave it to you, ore tenus, and with so little consideration, that I do not remember what it was. but I have since recollected that I once wrote a letter to Dr Cooper,1 on good consideration of the subject. he was then law-lecturer, I believe at Carlisle. my stiffening wrist makes writing now a slow & painful operation: but2 Ellen undertakes to copy the letter, which I shall inclose herein.

I3 notice in that letter 4. distinct epochs at which the English laws have been reviewed, and their whole body, as existing at each epoch, well digested into a Code. these Digests were by Bracton, Coke, Matthew Bacon, and Blackstone. Bracton having written about the commencement of the extant statutes, may be considered as having given a digest of the laws then in being, written and unwritten, and forming therefore the textual Code of what is called the Common law, just at the period too when it begins to be altered by statutes to which we can appeal. but so much of his matter is become obsolete by change of circumstances, or altered by statute, that the Student may omit him for the present, and

1. Begin with4 Coke’s 4. institutes. these give a compleat body of the law as it stood in the reign of the 1st James, an epoch the more interesting to us, as we separated at that point from English legislation, and acknolege no subsequent statutory alterations.

2. Then passing over (for occasional reading as hereafter proposed) all the Reports and treatises to the time of Matthew Bacon, read his Abridgment, compiled about 100. years after Coke’s, in which they are all embodied. this gives numerous applications of the old principles to new cases, and gives the general state of the English law at that period.

Here too the Student should take up the Chancery branch of the law, by reading the 1st and 2d Abridgments of the Cases in Equity. the 2d is by the same Matthew Bacon, the 1st having been published some time before. the Alphabetical order, adopted by Bacon, is certainly not as satisfactory as the systematic. but the arrangement is under very general and leading heads; and these indeed, with very little5 difficulty, might be systematically, instead of Alphabetically arranged and read.

3. Passing now, in like manner, over all intervening Reports, and tracts, the Student may take up Blackstone’s Commentaries, published about 25. years later than Bacon’s abridgment, and giving the substance of these new Reports and tracts. this Review is not so full as that of Bacon by any means, but better digested. Here too Woodeson should be read, as supplementory to Blackstone, under heads too shortly treated by him. Fonblanque’s edition of Francis’s Maxims of Equity,6 into which the later cases are incorporated, is7 also supplementory in the Chancery branch, in which Blackstone is very short.

This course comprehends about 23. 8vo volumes, and reading 4. or 5. hours aday, would employ about 2. years.

After these the best of the Reporters since Blackstone should be read for the new cases which have occurred since his time. which they are I know not as all of them are since my time.

By way of change and relief, for another hour or two in the day should be read the law-tracts of merit which are many, and among them all those of Baron Gilbert are of the first order. in these hours too may be read Bracton (now translated) and Justinian’s Institute. the method of these two last works is very much the same, and their language often quite so. Justinian is very illustrative of the doctrines of Equity, and is often appealed to, & Cooper’s edition is the best on account of the analogies & contrasts he has given of the Roman and English law. after Bracton, Reeves’s history of the English law may be read to advantage. during this same hour or two of lighter law reading, select and leading cases of the Reporters may be successively read, which the several digests will have pointed out and referred to.8 one of these particularly may be named as proper to be turned to while reading Coke Littleton on Warranty. it explains that subject easily which Coke makes difficult and too artificial. this is a case in Vaughan’s reports, of Gardner & Sheldon, as well as I remember, for I quote by memory, and after an interval of near 60. years since I read it.

I have here sketched the reading in Common law & Chancery which I suppose necessary for a reputable practitioner in those courts. but there are other branches of law in, which, altho’ it is not expected he should be an adept, yet, when it occurs to speak of them, it should be understandingly to a decent degree. these are the Admiralty law, Ecclesiastical law, and the Law of Nations. I would name as elementary books in these branches9 Brown’s Compend of the Civil and Admiralty law, 2. 8vos the Jura Ecclesiastica. 2. 8vos and Les institutions du droit de la Nature et des Gens de Reyneval. 1. 8vo

Besides these 6. hours of law-reading, light and heavy, and those necessary for the repasts of the day, for exercise and sleep, which suppose to be 10. or 12. there will still be 6. or 8. hours for reading history, Politics, Ethics, Physics, Oratory, Poetry, Criticism Etc. as necessary as Law to form an accomplished lawyer.

The letter to Dr Cooper, with this as a supplement, will give you those ideas on a sufficient course of law reading, which I ought to have done with more consideration at the moment of your first request. accept them now as a testimony of my esteem, and of sincere wishes for your success: and the family, unâ voce, desires me to convey theirs, with my own affectionate salutations.

Th: Jefferson

RC (ViU: TJP-CT); stained, with faint text supplied from PoC. PoC (DLC: TJ Papers, 219:39219, 221:39492); with TJ’s Notes on John H. Thomas’s Edition of Coke on Littleton, [ca. 4 Jan. 1824], attached with sealing wax at foot of first page (see note 4 below), and with other emendations possibly also made at that time, the most important of which are noted below; in TJ’s hand at head of text, probably added in 1824: “Th: Jefferson to Dabney Terrell esq.” Tr (MHi). Tr (NjP: Thomas Jefferson Collection); endorsed: “Letters on the Study of the Law.” Tr (ViU: TJP); extract in Nicholas P. Trist’s hand; misdated 26 Feb. 1824. Tr (ViU: Jefferson Family Correspondence); extract in Trist’s hand; endorsed by Joseph Coolidge: “Thomas’s systematic arrangement of Coke upon Lyttleton.” All Trs derive from the PoC. Enclosure: TJ to Thomas Cooper, 16 Jan. 1814. Enclosed in TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, 4 Jan. 1824.

ore tenus: “orally; by word of mouth” (Black’s Law Dictionary description begins Bryan A. Garner and others, eds., Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th ed., 1999 description ends ). ellen: TJ’s granddaughter Ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge). Edward Coke provided a chapter on warranty in The First Part of the Institutes of The Lawes of England: or A Commentary upon Littleton (4th ed., London, 1639; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 1781), 364–93. Edward Vaughan included the legal case of gardner v. sheldon in his edition of The Reports and Arguments Of that Learned Judge, Sir John Vaughan, Kt. late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas (London, 1706; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 2061), 259–73. unâ voce: “with one voice; unanimously” (OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ).

1In PoC TJ added “Jan. 16. 1814” in left margin opposite the line mentioning his letter of that date to Cooper.

2In PoC TJ here interlined “my grandaughter.”

3ViU Trs begin here.

4In PoC TJ here interlined an asterisk keyed to the attached MS of his Notes on John H. Thomas’s Edition of Coke on Littleton, [ca. 4 Jan. 1824].

5TJ here canceled “trouble.”

6In PoC TJ here interlined “and Bridgman’s digested Index.”

7Reworked in PoC to “are.”

8ViU Trs end here.

9In PoC TJ here interlined “Molloy de jure maritimo.”

Index Entries

  • A Compendious View of the Civil Law, and of the Law of the Admiralty (A. Browne) search
  • A General Abridgment of Cases in Equity, Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery, &c. (M. Bacon) search
  • A History of the English Law (J. Reeves) search
  • An Analytical Digested Index of the Reported Cases in the Several Courts of Equity, and the high Court of Parliament (R. W. Bridgman) search
  • A New Abridgment of the Law (M. Bacon) search
  • A Systematical View of the Laws of England (R. Wooddeson) search
  • A Treatise of Equity (Fonblanque) search
  • Bacon, Matthew; A General Abridgment of Cases in Equity, Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery, &c. search
  • Bacon, Matthew; A New Abridgment of the Law search
  • Blackstone, William; Commentaries on the Laws of England search
  • Bracton (Bratton), Henry de; Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ search
  • Bridgman, Richard Whalley; An Analytical Digested Index of the Reported Cases in the Several Courts of Equity, and the high Court of Parliament search
  • Browne, Arthur; A Compendious View of the Civil Law, and of the Law of the Admiralty search
  • Coke, Sir Edward; Institutes of the Laws of England search
  • Coke, Sir Edward; The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England: or a Commentary upon Littleton search
  • Commentaries on the Laws of England (W. Blackstone) search
  • common law; TJ on study of search
  • Coolidge, Ellen Wayles Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); as TJ’s amanuensis search
  • Cooper, Thomas (1759–1839); academic career of search
  • Cooper, Thomas (1759–1839); and books on British law search
  • Cooper, Thomas (1759–1839); The Institutes of Justinian. With Notes search
  • criticism (literary); TJ on search
  • De Jure Maritimo et Navali: or, a Treatise of Affairs Maritime and of Commerce (C. Molloy) search
  • ethics; TJ on study of search
  • Fonblanque, John de Grenier; A Treatise of Equity search
  • Francis, Richard; Maxims of Equity search
  • Gérard de Rayneval, Joseph Mathias; Institutions du Droit de la Nature et des Gens search
  • Gilbert, Sir Jeffray; TJ recommends works by search
  • Great Britain; and common law search
  • Great Britain; laws of search
  • history; TJ on study of search
  • Institutes of the Laws of England (E. Coke) search
  • Institutions du Droit de la Nature et des Gens (J. M. Gérard de Rayneval) search
  • James I, king of England; reign of search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Health; wrist injury search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; common law search
  • Jura Ecclesiastica: or, the Present Practice in Ecclesiastical Courts search
  • Justinian; The Institutes of Justinian. With Notes (T. Cooper) search
  • law; books on search
  • law; British search
  • law; chancery search
  • law; ecclesiastical search
  • law; international search
  • law; maritime search
  • law; Roman search
  • law; TJ on study of search
  • Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ (H. de Bracton) search
  • Maxims of Equity (R. Francis) search
  • Molloy, Charles; De Jure Maritimo et Navali: or, a Treatise of Affairs Maritime and of Commerce search
  • oratory; study of search
  • physics; study of search
  • poetry; study of search
  • politics; TJ on study of search
  • Reeves, John; A History of the English Law search
  • religion; and ecclesiastical law search
  • Terrell, Dabney Carr (TJ’s grandnephew); letter to search
  • Terrell, Dabney Carr (TJ’s grandnephew); studies law search
  • The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England: or a Commentary upon Littleton (E. Coke) search
  • The Institutes of Justinian. With Notes (T. Cooper) search
  • The Reports and Arguments Of that Learned Judge, Sir John Vaughan, Kt. late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas (J. Vaughan) search
  • Vaughan, Edward; publishesThe Reports and Arguments Of that Learned Judge, Sir John Vaughan, Kt. late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas search
  • Vaughan, John (1603–74); The Reports and Arguments Of that Learned Judge, Sir John Vaughan, Kt. late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas search
  • Wooddeson, Richard; A Systematical View of the Laws of England search