Thomas Jefferson Papers

Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s List of Books Recommended for Reading Law, [ca. 9 April 1822]

Enclosure

List of Books Recommended for Reading Law

[ca. 9 Apr. 1822]

Bracton. English1

Brooke’s abridgment. 4to edn.

Thomas’s Coke Littleton    3. v. 8vo

Coke’s 2d 3d and 4th institutes. 3. v. 8vo

Bacon’s abridgment by Gwyllim. 7. v. 8vo the last2 edition.

Comyns’s Digest by Manning, a new edition3

Blackstone’s Commentaries by Christian. 15th edn. 4. v. 8vo

Woodeson’s lectures. 3. v. 8vo

Reeves’s history of the English law. 4. v. 8vo

Jacob’s Law dictionary by Ruffhead. fol.

Abridgment of Cases in Equity4

Bridgman’s digested Index of cases in Chancery. 3. v. 8vo5

Fonblanque’s treatise of equity. 5th edition. 1819. 2. v. 8vo

PoC (DLC: TJ Papers, 222:39590); subjoined to PoC of covering letter; entirely in TJ’s hand; undated. MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 222:39665); subjoined to RC of TJ to Nicholas P. Trist, 14 June 1822; entirely in TJ’s hand; undated. PoC (CSmH: JF-BA); subjoined to PoC of TJ to Trist, 14 June 1822; on recto of a reused address cover from Caesar A. Rodney to TJ; undated; mutilated at seal. Tr (THi, on deposit T); subjoined to Tr of covering letter; undated; conjoined with an additional two-page list of books on law in a different unidentified hand.

The work attributed to Henry de bracton (Bratton), De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ (London, 1640; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 1771), had not yet been translated into English. James Manning originally intended his publication, A Digested Index to the Nisi Prius Reports (London, 1813; 2d ed., 1820), to be a supplement to comyns’s digest (unpaginated frontmatter). abridgment of cases in equity: A General Abridgment of Cases in Equity, 2 vols. ([London], 1756; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 1755). The 5th edition of John Fonblanque’s two-volume A Treatise of Equity was published in London in 1820, not 1819. For an earlier edition, see Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 1720.

1MS: “the English translation.”

2Preceding two words interlined in place of “6th.”

3Preceding four words interlined in place of “Rose edn 1800 6. v. 8vo.”

4MS here adds “both parts.”

5Preceding three words not in MS.

Index Entries

  • A Digested Index to the Nisi Prius Reports (J. Manning) search
  • A Digest of the laws of England (J. Comyns) 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 Law Dictionary (G. Jacob; eds. O. Ruffhead and J. Morgan) search
  • A Systematical View of the Laws of England (R. Wooddeson) search
  • A Systematic Arrangement of Lord Coke’s First Institute of the Laws of England (J. H. Thomas) 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 (ed. H. Gwillim) search
  • Blackstone, William; Commentaries on the Laws of England (ed. E. Christian) 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
  • Brooke, Sir Robert; La Graunde Abridgement search
  • Christian, Edward; editsCommentaries on the Laws of England (W. Blackstone) search
  • Coke, Sir Edward; Institutes of the Laws of England search
  • Commentaries on the Laws of England (W. Blackstone) search
  • Comyns, Sir John; A Digest of the laws of England search
  • Fonblanque, John de Grenier; A Treatise of Equity search
  • Gwillim, Henry; editsA New Abridgment of the Law (M. Bacon) search
  • Institutes of the Laws of England (E. Coke) search
  • Jacob, Giles; A New Law Dictionary (eds. O. Ruffhead and J. Morgan) search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; recommends books search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; List of Books Recommended for Reading Law search
  • La Graunde Abridgement (R. Brooke) search
  • law; books on search
  • Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ (H. de Bracton) search
  • Manning, James; A Digested Index to the Nisi Prius Reports search
  • Morgan, John; editsA New Law Dictionary (G. Jacob) search
  • Reeves, John; A History of the English Law search
  • Ruffhead, Owen; editsA New Law Dictionary (G. Jacob) search
  • Thomas, John Henry; A Systematic Arrangement of Lord Coke’s First Institute of the Laws of England search
  • Wooddeson, Richard; A Systematical View of the Laws of England search