I recently purchased a copy of Volume I of the early criminal law treatise, William Hawkins, A Treatise of Pleas of the Crown; or, a system of the principal matters relating to that subject, digested under proper heads. At common law, non-misdemeanor English crimes were the causes of action brought in the King’s court — thus a treatise on pleas of the Crown was a treatise on major crimes. The Hawkins treatise was first published in 1716, and it is one of the handful of sources regularly used to understand the common law of crimes (together with Volume 4 of Blackstone’s Commentaries, the Third Part of Coke’s Institutes, and Hale’s Pleas of the Crown).
The copy I purchased is a 6th edition as reworked by Thomas Leach and published in Dublin in 1788. My understanding is that the Dublin editions were pirated: They were published in Dublin to get around English copyright law. Pirated or not, I found this one on the cheap. Nice original copies of Hawkins seem to run around $700 to $1,000, but I found this for only $30 (albeit just the 1st of two volumes, and in need of rebinding).
I mention all of this in the spirit of my recent post on the 19th Century Supreme Court letter because I found some intriguing markings in and on the book. Inside the front cover, I found two stamped markings, “Rockingham County.” And on the spine, there is a black label that says “Woodbury.” Here are photos of the spine, inside the front cover, and the title page of the treatise:
The combination of “Woodbury” and “Rockingham County” is intriguing because Justice Levi Woodbury, a Justice of the Supreme Court from 1845-1851, was born, raised, and buried in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Indeed, a bit of googling revealed a 2006 advertisement for a 1733 legal treatise that had similar markings: The seller noted the possibility that the treatise came from the personal library of Justice Woodbury.
Wow, I thought to myself. Could this 1788 book, purchased for $30, have come from the personal collection of a mid-19th century Supreme Court Justice?
My research suggests it’s a possibility. In 1851, when Justice Woodbury died, his book collection was inherited by his son Charles Levi Woodbury, a Boston lawyer. Although some of those books were destoyed by fire in Boston in 1872, others survived:
What did survive the Boston fire were Charles Lev’s office law library and “a large and well selected library” of 1,000 volumes he had inherited in 1851 from his father, Levi Woodbury. Because he used his father’s Portsmouth estate as a summer home, some rare volumes now in the vault escaped destruction in 1872. The elder lawyer, politician and jurist’s library was said to contain “the best French authors; histories and memoirs, much of it very rare; numerous books on modern science and the practical arts; the works of statesmen; early history of Canada [and] of New England — a substantial collection, including several choice editions of the best English dramatists, poets and historians.”
At this point you’re thinking, wait, what are the chances that this book would happen to have been part of that collection? And how would we know it? Well, I don’t know anything for sure. But recall the stamped “Rockingham County” mark on the book. At first this seemed odd to me. Wouldn’t it be weird to stamp the county in which you live on your personal law books? But then I read about what Charles Woodbury did with his legal library. The library guide published by the Portsmouth N.H. Athenæum tells us:
Charles L. Woodbury bequeathed his non-Massachusetts legal library to the Rockingham County Court just as its new State Street courthouse was built in Portsmouth. There the Woodbury books remained until it was to be razed after the court moved to Exeter. It was then that Wyman Boynton rescued several hundred law books, many with signature of Levi Woodbury and other members of the local bar. Of particular interest are especially early printed legal works, although many are being sorted and processed.
These will join the Athenæum’s own legal collection that included a short run of the early American Law Journal (1808 -1817) and New Hampshire Laws published since the eighteenth century.
So it is seems likely that the “Rockingham County” stamp was added when the book was given to the Rockingham County Court and became part of the court’s collection. The “Woodbury” mark could indeed be from Justice Woodbury.
At the same time, it seems more likely that it came from the collection of his son Charles Levi Woodbury. We know the younger Woodbury had an extensive law office library, and this is the kind of work a practicing lawyer would have had in his office. Particularly so because the younger Woodbury had a practice that included criminal law; he was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1857 to 1861. So I suppose we’ll never know which Woodbury first owned the book, but it seems the odds favor the book having come from the collection of the younger Woodbury.
How did the book come my way? I would guess that the Athenæum was going through Charles L. Woodbury’s collection, and in the course of sorting and processing them they decided to just get rid of some of the more common books. This volume would certainly qualify: Hawkins was a popular treatise, the cover is very worn, Volume 2 is missing, and the volume has no signature or personal markings other than the numbers “52/6″ on the inside cover (perhaps indicating where in the library the book should go). It then made its way to DeWolfe and Wood Rare Books in Alfred, Maine, and I bought it online from them.
Anyway, this is all speculation, but hopefully it was of some modest interest to the legal history buffs among our readers.
Reader says:
It’s always enjoyable to be able to trace the provenance of old books. Here’s a brief note on Wyman Boynton, through whose hands it sounds like the book passed:
http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/boyles-bradburn.html#S2H0QHX8I
I’d guess the volume was disposed of because it was volume 1 only (vol. 2 had perhaps been lost years before).
January 3, 2010, 2:27 amGuy says:
Now I’m jealous.
It must be torture not knowing for sure where it came from.
January 3, 2010, 4:39 amSara says:
Thanks. Sounds like the next step is to consult the Portsmouth people (if collection still exists).
January 3, 2010, 7:59 amSara says:
Also, can the seller fill in some of the blanks?
January 3, 2010, 8:09 amOctavian says:
Take it to Antique Roadshow on PBS.
January 3, 2010, 10:30 amMark Field says:
Very cool.
January 3, 2010, 10:49 amChrisIowa says:
I hope you’re planning to keep it in the original binding rather than rebinding.
January 3, 2010, 11:13 ambooklover says:
Man, that’s awesome.
Brief story: when I was clerking, I was reading a case in an old law book in the library. Turned the page, and out fell an advertisement from the 1920s someone must’ve been using as a placeholder. It was by a black real estate agent, stating that he was “the only Negro licensed to sell real estate” in the area. I was struck by his entrepreneurial spirit and guts, and hoped he had lived a good life.
One of the coolest things about getting old books, is these tantalizing little hints about the people who had the book before you.
January 3, 2010, 11:34 amAndrew says:
Such a shame. You could have got it for free.
January 3, 2010, 1:22 pmDoug B. says:
Orin, I would be quite grateful if you could let me know — and make a copy of key pages, even — about any discussion of (1) jury trial rights, and (2) habeas action procedures. I imagine you can guess which article I’m writing in which these issues are of concern to me.
Thanks!
January 3, 2010, 1:28 pmOrin Kerr says:
Doug B,
As Andrew suggests above you, these books have been scanned and are available for free online. For example, here are all the references to habeas.
January 3, 2010, 1:35 pmSammy Finkelman says:
This book was probably discarded from the library within the last 30 years – more likely within the last 15 years. In earlier years it would more likely have been sold in more recent years it could have just been laid out for the taking.
I vote for the Rockingham County Court. It probably found its way into another library until at least the 1980s
January 3, 2010, 1:58 pmDave N. says:
I second that.
January 3, 2010, 2:08 pmwm13 says:
“modest interest to the legal history buffs . . .”
or the bibliophiles. I don’t suppose anyone wants to buy a copy of Charles Warren’s 1922 three-volume history of the Supreme Court? No reasonable offer refused (including the offer to give it a good home). I have to dispose of as many inches of books as I received for Christmas.
January 3, 2010, 3:53 pmOrin Kerr says:
wm13,
Does my office count as a good home? I’d be very interested in that, actually. I don’t think I know your e-mail address, but send me an e-mail.
January 3, 2010, 4:09 pmwm13 says:
Prof. Kerr: Definitely. I’ll send the books tomorrow.
January 3, 2010, 5:15 pmOrin Kerr says:
Sweet! Make sure there’s a return address so I can at least reimburse your postage.
January 3, 2010, 5:31 pmJeff Walden says:
Awesome post and speculation.
January 3, 2010, 5:45 pmFC says:
SCOTUS? I hardly Irish us!
January 4, 2010, 3:50 amWm. B. Travis says:
Some of us lawyers wish that this is what most of academia considers “Legal History”. Grab a legal history treatise, it’s usually a bill of particulars against the U.S.A. Do something to fix that.
January 4, 2010, 11:03 pmlosantiville says:
My favorite binder is Paul Sawyer. Not cheap.
I don’t agree with the (above) advice that the book not be rebound. Since it is not rare, and was a knockoff at the time of publication, its current functionality would be enhanced by binding. It can also be repaired when being rebound.
January 5, 2010, 2:46 pmmens snowboard jacket says:
Hey there, my let me know about your blog a couple weeks ago. and I absolutely love it. I’ll be subscribing! Thank you!
January 15, 2010, 5:14 pmparks and recreation tv says:
My dad purchased a brand new one for my family. However I’m having some trouble and I am looking for help.
January 17, 2010, 12:54 amRare Book Buyer says:
There is another antiquarian copy of Hawkin’s Treatise being auction on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180545343890&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_12919wt_1282
August 10, 2010, 3:59 pm