"BELONGED IN THE LIBRARY OF EVERY LIBERTY-MINDED AMERICAN IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION": HAWLES' ENGLISHMAN'S RIGHT, A SEMINAL INFLUENCE ON REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) HAWLES, John. The Englishman's Right: A Dialogue between a Barrister at Law and a Juryman. London: Printed for A. Shuckburgh, 1764. Octavo, modern full sprinkled calf in period style, spine elaborately gilt-decorated, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $950.

Rare variant of a later edition of Sir John Hawles' foundational legal text, codifying the principle that juries are "the people's instrument in protecting their liberties," singled out by Jefferson—who had a copy in his library—as key in representing "the American understanding of the value of adjudication by '12 honest jurymen'" (Origins of Reasonable Doubt).

"The most famous text on jury trial of the 17th and 18th centuries" was Englishman's Right: "the first American reprint of any English law book. It was published in Boston in 1693 and reprinted again in America in 1772"—the year before the Boston Tea Party (Shapiro, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, 290n). Hawles, solicitor general under William and Mary, codified the principle "that the jury was the people's instrument in protecting their liberties" (Dearest Birth Right, 119-20). "Englishman's Right belonged in the library of every liberty-minded American in the age of Revolution. When Jefferson was asked in 1789 to recommend books on jury trial for use by the French revolutionaries, for example, he picked Hawles" (Whitman, Origins of Reasonable Doubt, 12-28). By the time of the Revolution, "trial by jury was probably the most common right in all the colonies" (Levy, Origins of the Bill of Rights, 225). First published in London in 1680 and in America in 1693, both editions nearly unobtainable. This is the variant 1764 printing described by ESTC, with a period after "juries" on the title page. ESTC T109928. Harvard Law Catalogue I, 895. Sweet & Maxwell I, 376. See Sowerby 2794; Marvin, 376. First preface page with owner's name in early ink, mostly effaced.

Title page and final leaf with small repairs to outer corners; a few instances of minor staining, pages otherwise clean. Binding in fine condition. A handsome copy of this significant work.