1682 English Liberties: Or, the Free-Born Subject's Inheritance, Containing I. Magna Charta, The Petition of Right, The Habeas Corpus Act; and divers other most Useful Statutes ... II. The Proceedings in Appeals of Murther ... III. All the Laws against Conventicles and Protestant Dissenters

Description

First Edition, Rebound

Rebound in a very smart full cloth binding. This work draws on the radical reading of the Magna Carta to defend the personal freedom of freeborn Englishmen. It defends trial by jury and established the persisting legal freedoms based on the Magna Carta. (BL Online). This polemical work was influential and reprinted many times in the American colonies as well as in Britain. It was responsible for bringing the Magna Carta to the forefront regarding historical study and interpretation of British law. Care's writing is said to have strongly influenced the American colonies, as it was the first printing of the Magna Carta and other fundamental legal documents. It describes English law, history, government and the Jury system. ESTC No. R30882. The British Library notes that upon initial publication this work was condemned as 'seditious by the authorities but it was repeatedly reproduced into the 18th century, being regarded as a handbook of civil liberties.' Henry Care was a political writer and journalist, who specialised in anti-Catholic propaganda. He edited a paper called the 'Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome' which covered the history of the Protestant Reformation. He wrote this work to provide English persons who are uneducated or inexperienced regarding Law with their rights. One of three variant imprints, the others being 'G. Larkin, for Benjamin Harris', and 'G. Larkin, for John How'. The three imprints represent separate issues, rather than editions. This work has been bound without leaves L3 and L4 (pages 221-224). A very scarce and important work regarding the history of law.