Law Libraries of Colonial Virginia.
351
LAW LIBRARIES IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. By BERNARD C. STEINER. NEARLY every Virginia gentleman was a lawyer and a justice of the peace. He was the leader of his neighborhood in the militia, and the dispenser of the law of the 'land. When the emergencies of the Revolution came, his mind was found ready to grapple successfully with the most impor tant questions of government. His knowl edge of English precedent was exhaustive, his skill in expounding constitutional law was remarkable. These facts are inexplica ble, unless he had access to legal text-books and reports and unless he used this access to good purpose in making himself master of the legal lore of the day. He was not a mere easy-going, pleasure-loving man, but, in his leisure moments from the care of a great plantation, he employed his time in the study of political and legal questions. " In stances may be brought forward of men whose lives did not correspond to this de scription. These were exceptions; we are describing the typical Virginia gentleman of the last century. From the faithful work of President L. G. Tyler in the " William and Mary College Quarterly," we are enabled to ascertain what were the resources of the Virginians in the way of law books. There were no public libraries in the colony save that of the col lege at Williamsburg. The purchase of books for oneself and borrowing of books from a neighbor were the only means where by a man could obtain knowledge of what had been published. So, in the detailed in ventories of colonial estates, we are able to discover what were the literary resources of the planters. In his reprints of these inven tories, President Tyler has enabled us to open the book closets of the colonial gentry and discover what they had to read. We penetrate even into " Madam Wormeley's
closet " and find law books there, which had overflowed, doubtless, from the well-filled shelves of her liege lord. Oftentimes we learn at how many pounds of tobacco or at how many shillings those who made the in ventory valued the books. Often, on the other hand, the skill of the local gentry was not equal to such appraisement, and the entry is merely " inventoried, not valued." Let us take these library catalogues as we find them in the inventories. In Lower Nor folk County, in 1648, John Kemp possessed Rastall's " Abridgment of the Statutes," and a part of the " Court Baron and Leet." Though the latter was imperfect, the value of the two was put at two hundred pounds of tobacco. Kemp was of a period which had but few books; a half century later, when wealth had increased and a generation of men had sprung up who had no longer to act as pioneers in the wilderness, we find several notes of law books in inventories. In 1697, Capt. Thomas Cocke of Princess Anne County owned " The Jure Maritime," in quarto, "The Office of a Complete Attor ney," in octavo, and " The Young Clerk's Guide," "The Compléat Justice," and "A Collection of the Laws of Virginia," in "twelves." These books were the indis pensable ones and are found in several cat alogues. Capt. Christopher Cocke, in 1716, seems to have had some of these very books, but he had added to them others, such as Lord "Cook's" "Institutes," Swinburn on "Last Wills and Testaments," Shepherd's "Abridgement of the Common Law," the "Scrivener's Guide," the " Compleat Solici tor," the "Judge's Resolutions upon the Several Statutes of Bankrupts," and a " Cat alogue of Law Books." These were small collections. The first large one was contained in the library of
