1755 The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer

Description

An Important Work, First Edition, Leather Binding, Uncommon

This work was the standard authority for many years, and passed through over thirty editions by 1869, mostly posthumously. He also wrote a work on ecclesiastical law which formed the basis of modern commentaries regarding ecclesiastical law. This work was frequently excerpted in later legal works, such as Parker's 'Conductor Generalis'. In America this work was issued as 'An Abridgment of Burn's Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer' edited by Joseph Greenleaf. It had great influence in America and was held in high esteem by the colonies. Richard Burn was a justice of the peace himself, for Westmorland and Cumberland before devoting his life to studying law. With the prior owner's inscription to the front pastedown of volume I 'Berkeley'. Bookplate to the front pastedown of volume II, 'Richd Jackson'. Berkeley has then written their name on top of this bookplate. ESTC reference number: T68627. With the errata to the rear of volume II and publisher's adverts bound in before the title page to volume II. Collated, complete. Chapters include Homicide, Poor Law, Popery, Prison-Breaking, Rape, Burglary and Assizes of Bread, and justices regarding Butter and Cheese. If the section is referring to a crime, then Burn gives a definition of the crime, detailed regulations regarding the law on this crime and the form of conviction. There is also discussion of evidence and marriage. A clear guide to the court and common law jurisdictions in the mid-eighteenth century. The DNB notes that Burn 'constructed coherent categories for the discussion of the matters subject to the powers of justices and parish officers; and within each category he presented, in the order in which they arose in the performance of the justice's or officer's duty, the steps a justice or officer would take in dealing with each matter, and the law relevant to each step'. An uncommon, and very bright, first edition set of this important legal work.