Seth Kaller, Inc.

This reference guidebook provided British attorneys and clerks with a quick reference to the purpose and proper use of a wide array of writs and processes. The wholesale adoption of British statutes and processes that applied to the American environment and “were not repugnant to the constitution” allowed individual states and the United States to avoid the need to draft and enact a comprehensive body of law immediately. Between 1776 and 1784, eleven of the thirteen original states made some provision for the continued use of the common law and British statutes.

JOHN JAY. Signed copy of Giles Jacob, A Catalogue of All the Writs and Processes That Issue Out of the Several Courts at Westminster, &c. With a great Variety of Cases relating to the same. Together with A full and exact Account of their Nature and Use. London: Eliz. Nutt for Thomas Ward, 1717. 1 p. publisher’s advertisement facing title. 140 pp., 4½ x 7? in.

Inventory #27848       Price: $7,500

Excerpts
“Abridgments of large and copious Writings have ever been held in Esteem, as they are accounted useful to Persons of every Profession, especially that of the Law, wherein so many considerable Volumes have been publish’d: When such Tracts are well finished, and are not so concise but that they contain sufficient Explanations, they are certainly of greatest Use, as they immediately introduce the reader to the desired Information in a shorter Time, and thereby save him a great deal of Trouble in a shorter Time, and thereby save him a great deal of Trouble in turning over many larger Volumes.” (pA2-3)

“I have taken particular Care to insert in this small Volume not only the Names of all the Writs issuing out of the Courts at Westminster, but also a concise Account of their Nature and Use, taking in all necessary Informations that do immediately relate to them from all the other Books, but in a different, and I hope a preferable Method and Dress: So that the Attorney, Entering Clerk and Student, may here, at one View, without any Trouble or Difficulty, be let into the Theoretick Knowledge of all Manner of Writs, be enabled to give a good Account of them, and to make a proper Application of them upon any Occasion.” (pA4-5)

John Jay (1745-1829) was born in New York City into a prominent merchant family of Huguenot descent and graduated from King’s College (Columbia University) in 1764. After graduation, he became a law clerk for a prominent attorney. Admitted to the bar in 1768, Jay established a law practice in New York City. Initially cautious, Jay became a moderate and then ardent Patriot in the American Revolutionary struggle. He served in the First and Second Continental Congresses. He served in the New York Provincial Congress, where he drafted the 1777 Constitution of New York. His work in New York prevented him from voting on or signing the Declaration of Independence, though he supported it. From 1777 to 1779, he served as chief justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature. He also served as president of the Continental Congress from December 1778 to September 1779. After being appointed as minister to Spain but refused by the Spanish royal court, Jay helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. He served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1784 to 1789 until Congress changed the name to the Department of State. In 1788, Jay joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in authoring the Federalist Papers. Jay’s five articles largely dealt with foreign affairs. After declining George Washington’s offer of the position of Secretary of State (continuing his earlier service), he accepted Washington’s nomination to be the first chief justice of the United States, a position he held from 1789 to 1795. Jay was the Federalist candidate for governor of New York in 1792 and received more votes, but technicalities excluded the votes of three counties, giving Democratic-Republican George Clinton the governorship. President Washington sent Jay to England to resolve issues that threatened renewed war. In March 1795, when the Jay Treaty reached Philadelphia, Democratic-Republicans denounced it as a betrayal of American interests, but the Senate narrowly ratified it. While he was in Britain, voters elected Jay in May 1795 as governor of New York. He resigned from the Supreme Court and served as New York governor until 1801, when he refused both a re-nomination as governor and a re-nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. He retired to a farm in Westchester County, New York.

Giles Jacob (1686-1744) was born in Hampshire, England. He obtained legal training from Thomas Freke and as secretary to Sir William Blathwayt. His first book, The Compleat Court-Keeper (1713) gives detailed and practical instructions on how to administer estates. In addition to several books on law, including The Student’s Companion (1725) on how to study law, Jacob also wrote and published poetry and other literary works.

Elizabeth Carr Nutt (1666-1746) was already a seller of newspapers and pamphlets when she married printer John Nutt in 1692, and they had 13 children. John Nutt published the first three editions of Jonathan Swift’s A Tale of a Tub. Because the couple generally allied with opposition causes, they were arrested several times for selling the London Evening Post and other publications. After John Nutt died in 1716, she took over the printing business and had her son Richard Nutt manage the presses. Richard Nutt took over the publication of legal writings in 1722.

Provenance: John Chambers (1710-1764), a justice of the New York Supreme Court, gifted to John Jay; John Jay (his ownership signature on title-page with gift inscription from John Chambers, text block fore-edge titled); Peter Augustus Jay (1776-1843) gifted to New York Law Institute (gift inscription on title-page, several Library stamps on title-page and preface).

Condition: Modern quarter Morocco; spine gently sunned, small spot of rubbing.