The Posthumous Works, Consisting of a Reading On the Statute of..

1797. With Commentary on an Interesting Inheritance Case Fearne, Charles [1742-1794]. [Shadwell, Thomas Mitchell, Editor]. The Posthumous Works, Consisting of a Reading On the Statute of Inrollments, Arguments in the Singular Case of General Stanwix, and a Collection of Cases and Opinions. London: Printed by A. Strahan, 1797. ix, [15], 468, [12], [8] pp. With a twelve-page Subscriber list. Main text followed by eight-page publisher catalogue. Octavo (8-1/4" x 5"). Contemporary calf, blind fillets to boards, later cloth to spine and joints, typed title label to spine, endpapers renewed. Moderate rubbing to boards, corners bumped and somewhat worn. Light toning to interior, light soiling to preliminaries, top-edges of a few leaves of main text and final leaf of catalogue, early owner signature "Wm Gray Jr/ Sol York" to head of title page. $150. * Only edition. Fearne wrote an influential treatise on contingent remainders that was praised by Kent and Marvin. The present work was collected from his manuscripts by one of his pupils. Along with cases and opinions, it contains the reading of the Statute of Inrollments delivered in 1778 in Lyons Inn and the interesting case of General Stanwix. As Butler notes, "Stanwix and his daughter had perished in the same shipwreck, and the question, as between their representatives, was whether either could be presumed to be the survivor; the case was compromised; but Fearne for his own amusement composed these two arguments for the two claimants." Several notable lawyers and judges subscribed to this publication, among them Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine [1750-1823] and Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon [1732-1832]. William Gray, the former owner of our copy, was also a subscriber. A York solicitor, one of his clients was Anne Lister [1791-1840]. Also known as "Gentleman Jack," she was a notable English diarist and landowner who is sometimes described as "the first modern lesbian." Butler, preface to the seventh edition of Contingent Remainders cited in Holdsworth, History of English Law XII:374. English Short-Title Catalogue T140188. (Inventory #: 81297)