LEGAL

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium. Forty-three lines of neat text. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with a few small closed tears. The author ('Sir') is unnamed, but is presumably the 'Editor' referred to in the text. Signed 'Wm Ballantine'. By recipient, at head of first page: 'Letter from Mr Sergeant [sic] Ballantine / United Club -'.

This forgotten case of identity fraud predates the celebrated Titchborne case by more than a decade.

One page, 8vo, strip on left edge from origins in an album(?), fair condition, completely legible if hasty. Text: I will let you off now - but you had better let me ask Gunning whether he has further occasion for you.| I think too that an attempt to murder is as bad as murder - But inasmuch as punishment is not to revenge [underlined] but to deter [underlined]; as long as murder is punishable with deat you have all the security that you can have against attempts to murder. | JK.

See Christian's entry in the Oxford DNB. (He was the newly-created Downing Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge from 1788 to his death.) 1p, landscape 8vo. On one half of a 4to leaf that has been torn in two. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of tape at the right-hand edge, and two punch holes at the left-hand edge of Manington's side. ONE (Christian): Conclusion of autograph draft legal document, numbered '(9)' and signed at bottom left 'Ed. Christian'. With several deletions. Relates to 'Jno Hutchings & Son', who deny 'Combin[ation] & Confederacy &c'.

A spirited and characteristically-forceful letter, casting interesting light on the social side of London legal practice in the Victorian period. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 8vo. On Bifolium with thin mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with some nicking and light creasing at edges. Begins: ‘D[ea]r Aspinall, / I suppose from my not having heard from you no one knows of a case in point. So, unless you tell me there is some precedent - of danger, I’ll recommend my secretary to take his chance.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘James Bryce’. Addressed to ‘W. S[?]ing Esq.’, presumably the secretary of the South Place Ethical Society. His ‘time is already so fully occupied with public & private work & engagements of many kinds’ that he ‘cannot hope to comply’ with the recipient’s request that he ‘should give an address for the South Place Ethical Society’.

16pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly-aged, no wraps, disbound. Several copies on COPAC, none of this edition on market currently.

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded once.. A neatly-written letter of fourteen lines. The recipient is not named, but is Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808), whose country seat was Addiscombe Park in Surrey. Mansfield served in the First Pitt Ministry with Liverpool (then Lord Hawkesbury), the former as Lord President of the Council, and the latter as President of the Board of Trade.

The third letter gives an excellent indication of Birkett’s pride in his use of language. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler. All three signed ‘Norman Birkett’. In fair condition, lightly aged and little grubby. The first letter with a small hole to one corner, and the two leaves of the last letter held together with a pin. ONE: ALS, 9 July 1953. 1pp, 4to. He is adding Collins’s book to his ‘select library on “words”’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the Piffard papers. 1p, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: 'Lord Justice Fry would be obliged if Mr Piffard would send him a Micro-slide of Conidia bearing Hyphae of Eurotium repens, isolated & stained by a new application of Iodine Vapour. He encloses 2/- in stamps.'

See the entries for Cox and Tuckwell in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium blind-stamped with the device of the Conservative Club. Addressed to ‘Rev P [sic] Tuckwell / College School / Taunton’, and signed ‘Edwd Wm Cox’. In good condition, on aged paper. Folded twice for postage. He begins: ‘Dr Sir / It gives me very great pleasure to aid the fund of the College School. After its long hybernation 43 years ago, I was the first pupil received on its revival. & within its walls I obtained the larger portion of my education, following the then master, (Rev H Forster) to Oxford.

See his entry, and Craig’s, in the Oxford DNB. 13 x 9 cm envelope, with seal (no impression of any kind) in red wax over the broken flap. In good condition, lightly aged. On the front of the envelope, in Jeffrey’s hand, ‘To / James Gibson Craig Esqre / 7. North St Andrew Street’. Beneath this, at bottom left and between the customary lines is the signature ‘F. Jeffrey’.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. The present item is on one side of a 21 x 8.5 cm piece of wove paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with one fold. Minor traces of two red wafers from previous mounting on blank reverse. Written out by Harding in his attractive hand (he was a stylish fellow: his obituary in the Annual Register stated that ‘no one had a finer choice of words and few a more graceful delivery’), the note reads: ‘Received May 4th.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son and editor of the economist Thorold Rogers [James Edwin Thorold Rogers] (1823-1890), for information regarding whom see his entry in the Oxford DNB. A little grubby, but in fair condition, folded once. Good clear signature. Reads: ‘The 1st. of January 1926. / My dear Rogers, / Many thanks for your letter and information re the hostel. I have already brought it before The Bishop of St. David’s and hope that something may result. / With kind regards and best wishes.

ONE: Printed document in the person of King George IV, containing a list of several hundred men appointed as justices of the peace, with extensive manuscript emendations and deletions in red and black ink. (A few names are added, but mostly the names of the dead are struck out.) Dated 16 November [1820] and signed in type ‘BATHURST.’ The first page is headed ‘Extracted from the Commission of the Peace for Northumberland.’ Aged and worn, with closed tear along fold-line of second leaf, the bottom corner of which is torn away, resulting in loss from around sixteen lines of text.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The three items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased (the last in particular, being on airmail paper), and folded for postage. All three signed 'Devlin'. ONE: 27 October 1974. 1p, foolscap 8vo.

See Richard A. Cosgrove’s laudatory entry on him in the Oxford DNB, as well as that on Henry Goudy (1848-1921), Regius Professor of Civil Law (like Dicey, of All Souls). The recipient, Archibald Arthur Prankerd (1851-1926), of Worcester College, was also in the law faculty at Oxford. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. Signed and underlined at foot in pencil ‘A V Dicey’. The letter, in a secretarial hand, reads: ‘Dear Prankerd, / This Dissertation will I think suffice. Please look it through & send it back to Goudy.

2pp, 4to. Bifolium, annotated on second leaf ‘Mr Sargt. Frere’. Watermark: ‘STAINS & CO | 1819’. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Captain Munby &c &c’, and signed ‘William Frere’. He apologises for not answering sooner ‘the communications I have been honored with from you respecting a house at Yarmouth’. He has been in London, where he has suffered ‘some uncertainty as to accepting or declining the offer’.

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, with negligible remnants of windowpane mount adhering at edges of blank reverse. Reads: ‘Mr. Romilly presents his compliments to Mr. Williams and informs him that he is obliged to go out of Town tomorrow & that he has not been able to finish the Bill in this Cause but he will take it with him into the Country & send it to Mr. W. in two or three days’.

See the account of his life in the entry for his father the serjeant-at-law John Humffreys Parry (1816-1880) in the Oxford DNB. Signed ‘faithfully yours / Edward Parry / April . 1930’, across the headline of a 22 x 21 cm. cutting of a newspaper article, with text in three columns, the headline reading: ‘BREACH OF PROMISE / THE LAW, THE LADY, AND SEX EQUALITY/ By His Honour SIR EDWARD PARRY’. In good condition, on browning high-acidity paper. Folded once and with one crease. Begins: ‘Marriage is not the gilt-edged security that it was. Its stock is not rising.

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with punch hole at top left. Receipt stamp at head. Addressed in autograph to ‘My Dear Walter’. Recipients formal name (‘The Right Hon. Viscount Mounkton of Brenchley’) and address at foot. He thanks him for his ‘line about Cumberland Lodge and for having a word with Oliver Franks on the telephone’. He understands Monckton’s ‘doubts whether the banks can give us practical backing, but even if they cannot I am most grateful to you for having taken time to consider it’. He adds in autograph: ‘& putting in a word for us.

2pp., 12mo. On leaf with mourning border. In good condition, lightly-aged, with neat repair to a short closed tear. He is returning a memorandum, 'which is quite correct & may be acted on', and has made a payment of £380 to his account with Drummonds Bank.

See Powell’s entry in the Oxford DNB. While presiding over the 1712 trial of Jane Wenham for witchcraft he ruled that there was ‘no law against flying’. 1p, long 8vo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Folded twice. On laid paper with government watermark, with two blind-stamped sixpenny tax stamps at head of page. Text intact, but with wear, closed tears and slight loss to some edges and a crease. Text by Powell himself, signed ‘John Powell’, with red wax seal (without any impression). Signed at foot of page: ‘Wittness | W Price’. Endorsed with date on reverse of second leaf.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Clearly and firmly written. The letter would appear to concern an individual who is threatening to resign his membership of the Athenaeum Club, and ends with reference to proxy voting for new members. Hughes begins by reporting that he has 'already written to the good but peppery & impulsive Dr. of whom I am as fond as you are'.

All signed ‘George C: Oke’. At the time of writing Oke was Assistant Clerk to the Lord Mayor, a position he had held since 1855; in 1864 he would assume the Chief Clerkship. For details of the recipient, barrister and F.R.S, elder brother of Sir Bartle Frere and nephew of Canning’s friend the satirist John Hookham Frere, see the Law Times, 31 December 1887. The four letters total 10pp, 12mo, all on letterheads with engraved arms of the City of London. All in good condition; very lightly aged; with folds. Closely and neatly written.

2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded several times. Small slip of paper with printed biographical entry on Pollock laid down at top left of first page. With several corrections giving the appearance of a draft, but from the papers of the recipient, the Austrian-born biologist Maurice Ernest (1872-1955). An interesting discussion of the question of arms control by a leading jurist in the years preceding the First World War. He begins by stating: 'Limitation of armaments is, as you rightly suggest, the only practical term.

2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded several times. Small slip of paper with printed biographical entry on Pollock laid down at top left of first page. With several corrections giving the appearance of a draft, but from the papers of the recipient, the Austrian-born biologist Maurice Ernest (1872-1955). An interesting discussion of the question of arms control by a leading jurist in the years preceding the First World War. He begins by stating: 'Limitation of armaments is, as you rightly suggest, the only practical term.

Lauriston Leonard Batten studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (see his entry in Alum. Cantab.). He was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1882 and called to the bar four years later. KC, 1905. Bencher, 1914. The present collection is from the papers of his colleague on the Oxford Circuit, Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931), 12th baronet, who was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. Called to the Bar in 1886, he practised on the Oxford Circuit before taking up an appointment as a Puisne Judge in the High Court of Justice at Fort William in Bengal in 1899.

2pp, folio. On bifolium endorsed on reverse of second leaf. In fair condition, lightly creased and aged. Three folds. Embossed with five pound tax stamp at head. Printed in copperplate, with the details of the appointee 'John Amhust Philpott of Cranbrook in the County of Kent, Gentleman' filled-in in manuscript. Circular stamp of the Court of Justice at end of document with two signatures: 'Entd. | H. R. W.' and 'Entered 14th June 1876 | E W Williamson | Deputy Registrar of Solicitors'.

1p, 8vo. Aged and worn, with closed tears, chipping and creasing. Several folds. The full heading reads: 'Case on Mr. Chrisr. Blacketts Will & Mr. Ords Opinion | See Copy of Will'. Endorsed on reverse: '1750 June 13th - | Copy | Mr. Ords Opinion on Mr. Blacketts Will'. Twenty-eight lines of neatly-written text, arranged as two queries, each with its answer. Contains a couple of corrections by Ord. The case concerns the various claims on a freehold of 'Mrs. Eliz: Smart and Mrs. Martha Maria Bellassyse' and 'Mrs. Blackett'. The various families in the case hailed from the north-east of England.