Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia, From 1730, TO 1740; And From 1768 TO 1772.

JEFFERSON, Thomas [Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph].

$9,800.00

Item Number: 128396

Charlottesville: F. Carr and Co., 1829.

First edition. Octavo, original boards. Presentation copy, inscribed by the editor and Thomas Jefferson’s grandson on the front free endpaper, “Rick Barnhead Presented by Tho Jefferson Randolph Grand son of the author.” In very good condition. Rare and desirable, especially signed and inscribed.

The reports of cases from 1730 to 1740 were extracted by Thomas Jefferson from manuscript notes left by Sir John Randolf, Edward Barradall, and Mr. Hopkins, and cases from 1768 to 1772, reported by Jefferson himself (see Preface, signed Th: Jefferson). Originally copied by hand, and an example of the Thomas Jefferson’s industriousness as a young attorney. Published posthumously, (see the Editor’s Preface). With the “Appendix. Whether Christianity is part of the common law?” signed Th: Jefferson, p. [137]-145. A notable collection of colonial cases selected by Jefferson from three manuscript volumes he found in the papers of John Randolph containing cases of English and domestic laws from the General Court of Virginia, here first published by Thomas Jefferson’s grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Jefferson’s record of these cases might be considered the beginning of the work that evolved into Jefferson’s revision of the laws of Virginia. In the Preface, Jefferson notes that he selected these cases from the manuscript volumes over those cases “comprehending English law” because these represent “those peculiar to our own country ... [T]heir judgments, whether formed on correct principles of law, or not, were of conclusive authority. As precedents, they established authoritatively the construction of our own enactments, and gave them shape and meaning, under which our property has been ever since transmitted, and is regulated and held to this day. These decisions, therefore, were worthy of preservation.” [p. v]. It should not surprise that many of the cases in this volume center around slavery and religion, as, according to Matthew Crow in his article “Jefferson, Pocock, and the Temporality of Law in a Republic,” these issues “were the areas that most engaged Jefferson’s legal reading and writing” [p. 64]. In fact, the two cases in this volume that Jefferson actually argued in front of the General Court relate to slavery and religion: Howell v. Netherland and Godwin et al. v. Lunan; the first, a case taken on behalf of a biracial grandchild of a white woman held in servitude, and the second debating the jurisdiction of the General Court over ecclesiastical dismissal.