Leges Marchiarum, or Border-Laws: Containing Several Original Articles and Treaties, Made and Agreed upon by the Commissioners of the Respective Kings of England and Scotland, for the bettter [sic] Preservation of Peace and Commerce upon the Marches of Both Kingdoms: From the Reign of Henry III. to the Union of the Two Crowns, in K. James I.

London:: Tim. Goodwin, 1705., 1705. 8vo. [viii], lvi, 388, [4] pp. Half-title. Original blind-stamped full calf, 4 raised bands, rebacked with new calf, preserving the original calf boards, covers tooled with tulips in each of the corners, new spine with gilt-stamping. PROVENANCE: Theological Institute of Connecticut blind-stamps to first and last ten pages. Very good copy. FIRST EDITION of Nicholson's edition of the Laws of the Marches. The text starts with laws relating to King Henry III of England, from the year 1249. The tracts are continued through Henry VI (1449), who is followed by Edward IV (1464), Henry VIII (1533), Edward VI (1549), Queen Mary (1553), and ends with Queen Elizabeth (1563). / "On 14th April, 1249, there met on the Marches certain representative sheriffs, with four-and-twenty knights of fame, from both sides of the Border. More successful in transacting business than some such previous meetings had been, this convention framed and adopted the great Border statue, the Leges Marchiarum, or 'Lawis of the Merchis.' Of these laws battle was no small part, for battle was the remedy for almost every Border wrong" (Neilson, p. 126). / Henry III [year 1249] / "The Bible of Border law, compiled by Bishop Nicolson of Carlisle in the early eighteenth century under the title "Leges Marchiarum," contains eight separate collections of laws, dating from 1249 to 1596; like any anthology of laws and human rights it is a grand vague statement of good intentions, but it is by no means complete" (Fraser, p. 149). / "In 1702 Nicolson, a Tory moderate, was appointed bishop of Carlisle. He had cultivated the support of local Tories: Sir Christopher Musgrave, 4th Baronet, Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet who was heir to the Cumbrian Clifford estates, Colonel James Grahme the brother of Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston. His Miscellany Accounts of his diocese, compiled in 1707–4, were published in 1877 by Richard Saul Ferguson. They were from his own observations, or from trusted witnesses. He found in 1703 the neglected Holmcultram Abbey full of water. Charles Murray Lowther Bouch used Nicolson's records to conclude that 70% of the churches in the diocese were then in tolerable condition, with 10% very bad." / "Atterbury was appointed Dean of Carlisle in 1704, through the influence of Robert Harley. On a single visit to Carlisle Atterbury, who had picked a fight with Nicolson over a chapter matter, lost all support except with Hugh Todd. Nicolson tried to have the appointment suppressed, but Atterbury remained in post, based in London until 1710. The proxy quarrel with Todd escalated: and when Nicolson excommunicated Todd, Todd began a court case of 1707–8, argued on the foundation of Carlisle Cathedral based on an Augustinian abbey, by a statute of Henry VIII. Todd won his case, but Nicolson and allies had Parliament pass in March 1708 the Cathedral Act, clarifying the bishop's right of visitation for the cathedrals in the scope of the statute. The following day Sir James Montague, a Member of Parliament for Carlisle, held a dinner for the two clerics at which they were reconciled." / . . . "There was also the Leges Marchiarum or Border Laws (1705, new ed., 1747). This work was topical in the run-up to the Acts of Union 1707. Nicolson disagreed with William Atwood, on the relative standing of England and Scotland." [Wikip – Nicholson]. / With the Appendix containing charters and records (pages 174-388). The first is "Thordre to keipe a Werdens Court, with an Exhortation to the Jury, and Declaration of their Charge in Cases of Martche Treason." Charges of forgery are raised (pp. 349 and 353-4). / REFERENCES: Fraser, George MacDonald, The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers, New York: Skyhorse, 2008; Goldsmiths' 4131; Marvin, J G. Legal Bibliography, or a thesaurus of American, English, Irish and Scotch law books: together with some continental treatises. T & J W Johnson, 1847 (p. 539 1747 edition); W. R. and V. B. McLeod, Anglo-Scottish tracts, 1701-1714; a Descriptive Checklist, University of Kansas Libraries, 1979, #188; Neilson, George. Trial by Combat, London: Williams & Norgate, 1890; Sweet & W. Harold Maxwell's Legal Bibliography, V, pp. 83-84. (Inventory #: LV2731)