ASSIZES

ONE: Printed document in the person of King George IV, containing a list of several hundred men appointed as justices of the peace, with extensive manuscript emendations and deletions in red and black ink. (A few names are added, but mostly the names of the dead are struck out.) Dated 16 November [1820] and signed in type ‘BATHURST.’ The first page is headed ‘Extracted from the Commission of the Peace for Northumberland.’ Aged and worn, with closed tear along fold-line of second leaf, the bottom corner of which is torn away, resulting in loss from around sixteen lines of text.

7pp, folio. On four leaves. In good condition, lightly aged. In worn modern half-binding of brown leather spine and corners and cloth covers, split at hinge. The poem is of 124 lines, arranged in five irregular stanzas. A nauseating exercise in brazen sycophancy, written in the aftermath of the Bloody Assizes. Not mentioned in Barnes's entry in the Oxford DNB, which does state that his 'adulation for the Stuarts [...] probably continued undiminished' with the accession of William and Mary.

Lauriston Leonard Batten studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (see his entry in Alum. Cantab.). He was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1882 and called to the bar four years later. KC, 1905. Bencher, 1914. The present collection is from the papers of his colleague on the Oxford Circuit, Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931), 12th baronet, who was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. Called to the Bar in 1886, he practised on the Oxford Circuit before taking up an appointment as a Puisne Judge in the High Court of Justice at Fort William in Bengal in 1899.

ESTC R1431. 4pp, folio. Bifolium. Paginated 1-4. Aged and worn, with text clear and entire. Drophead title reads: 'THE | CHARGE | GIVEN BY THE | Ld. Ch. Justice Jefferies, | AT THE | CITY of BRISTOL, | Monday, September 21. 1685. | In his Return from his Western Campaigne.' Jeffreys is a byword for cruelty as a result of his handling Bloody Assizes following Monmouth's Rebellion, and the present text does nothing to dispel that judgement.

ESTC R21335, which states: 'Attributed to George Jeffreys. Cf. BM.' 1p, folio. Aged and worn, with fraying to edges, but with text clear and entire. At top right, in pencil, in an eighteenth-century hand, 'Dupl' (i.e. duplicate). The heading reads: 'THE | Lord Chancellor's | PETITION | To His Highness the | Prince of Orange, | On His Entrance into LONDON.' Beneath rule at foot: 'LONDON, Printed for S. M. 1688.' For the context, see Jeffreys' entry in the Oxford DNB.

Nine 4to calendars of prisoners at six assizes and three quarter sessions at the following locations on the Oxford Circuit between 1891 and 1899: Gloucester (1), Hereford (1), Stafford (2), Worcester (5). Each of the nine is stapled and unbound. ONE: County of Hereford, Autumn Assizes, December 1891, [8]pp. TWO: County of Worcester and City of Worcester, and County of the same City, Winter Assizes, February 1895, [2] + 9pp. THREE: County of Stafford, Winter Assizes, March 1895, [2] + 13pp. FOUR: County of Stafford, Autumn Assizes, November 1895, [2] + 21pp.

Ten quarto pages (paginated 1 to 10) on three loose bifoliums. Stabbed as issued. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with chipping and short closed tears to edges.

8vo, 8pp. Unbound. Stitched as issued. Text complete and clear. Good: lightly-aged and creased. The order is on pp.1-3. Followed by (over five pages): 'SCHEDULE', consisting of 'Circuits of the Judges. Civil and Criminal.', 'Autumn Circuit. Criminal Business Only, except where otherwise stated.' and 'Easter Circuit.'

English judge and Tory politician (1816-88; DNB). Both letters 3 pages, 16mo, and both in good condition. Interesting letters giving his views on an important matter.