The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0772  Friday, 21 August 1998.

[1]     From:   Nick Sharp <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 17 Aug 1998 11:06:48 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

[2]     From:   Sara Vandenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 17 Aug 1998 12:05:51 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

[3]     From:   Sara Vandenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 17 Aug 1998 12:05:51 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

[4]     From:   Helen Ostovich <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 18 Aug 1998 15:45:15 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Nick Sharp <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 17 Aug 1998 11:06:48 -0400
Subject: 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

>Does anyone know about these three as legal authorities in early
>17th-century England?  Polton, Crompton, and Fitzerbert.  The reference
>comes from Newcastle's play _the Varitey_.

Regarding Jim Fitzmaurice's question about legal authorities, I can't
help with Polton  but Crompton wrote a standard Elizabethan legal text
on (I believe) the jurisdiction of various courts which was later
supplemented and eventually supplanted by Coke's Institues during the
1630's (Holdsworth mentions Crompton briefly in his chapter on Coke in
SOME MAKERS OF ENGLISH LAW).  And "Fitzerbert" probably refers to the
16th century "Grand Abridgement" of the common law, familiarly known as
Fitzherbert, an influential law book studied by virtually all the
students at the Inns of Court in Elizabethan and Stuart times.
Fitzherbert's Grand Abridgment and Natura Brevium are among the standard
authorities cited constantly by Pollock and Maitland in THE HISTORY OF
ENGLISH LAW  (1895), one of the most respected legal histories ever
written.

Nick Sharp

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sara Vandenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 17 Aug 1998 12:05:51 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

Sir Anthony Fitzherbert (1470-1538) wrote _Loffice et Aucthoritie de
iustices de peace, in part collect per Sir Anthonie FitzherbertChiualer,
iades vn de les iustices del common Banke_ (London: Adam Islip for the
Stationers Company, 1606).  The English version was published in 1583,
and the ESTC lists several French editions.

Richard Crompton (1573-1599), Michael Dalton (d. 1648?), andd William
Lambarde (1536-1601) wrote _The Compleat Justice_ (London, 1636; several
subsequent editions).

Sara van den Berg

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sara Vandenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 17 Aug 1998 12:14:04 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

"Polton" may be Michael Dalton, who not only co-authored the Crompton
treatise mentioned in my previous post but also wrote _The countrey
justice containing the practice of the justices of the peace out of
their sessions_ (London, 1661). Dalton also wrote a treatise on
sheriffs.

Sara van den Berg
University of Washington

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Helen Ostovich <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 18 Aug 1998 15:45:15 -0400
Subject: 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.0765  Q: Legal Authorities

I recognize Fitzherbert:  Sir Anthony Fitzherbert (Gray's Inn),
1470-1538, Justice of the Common Pleas, produced La Graunde Abridgement,
1514 (reprinted 1565, 1573, 1577), the authority for precedents not
mentioned in the year-books. He also published in 1534 a manual of
procedure, La Novel Natura Brevium (reissued frequently to 1598 and
subsequently, and a commentary on municipal courts, translated as The
new Book of Justices of the Peace (often reprinted to 1594 and later) as
well as texts on landed interests.  Fitzherbert, like Brooke and
Plowden, was frequently studied and cited by Inns of Court students. For
more detail, see  DNB and R.J.  Fehrenbach, General Editor, _Private
Libraries in Renaissance England_, College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, Virginia, who might check inventories in his database for
you.  He did very kindly check various legal references for me.  Perhaps
his database is now on-line or on CD-ROM??

Helen Ostovich
Editor, EARLY THEATRE / Dept of English CNH-321
McMaster University

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