PLEAS OF THE CROWN, IN FIVE PARTS WHICH INCLUDES TRYAL OF WITCHES AT THE ASSIZES HELD AT BURY ST. EDMUNDS.

HALE, Sir Matthew Knight and Giles Jacob.

Published by London printed by J. N. Assignee of Edw. Sayer for D. Brown et al, 1716

About this Item

FIFTH EDITION 1716. 3 title pages at front and each part has a separate title page; (1) Pleas of the Crown, (2) A Short Treatise touching Sheriffs Accompts, (3) A Tryal of Witches at the Assizes held at Bury St Edmunds for the Country of SUFFOLK, on the Tenth Day of March, 1664, (pages 73-104), (4) A Discourse touching Provision for the Poor, (5) Pleas of the Crown, The Second Part by Giles Jacob. 8vo approximately 190 x 115 mm, 7½ x 4½ inches, pages: [22], 1-272, [8]; [4] 5-143, [1]; [2], 1-121. Bound in full contemporary calf, gilt lettered label to spine. Age-browning to margins of first General title page, heavy age-browning to pastedowns and endpapers, occasional pale age-browning to text, a very good tight copy. "The publication, A Tryal of Witches, related to the 1662 Bury St. Edmunds witch trial, first published in 1682 and was used by the magistrates at Salem when looking for a precedent in allowing spectral evidence. Since the jurist Sir Matthew Hale had permitted this evidence, supported by the eminent philosopher, physician and author Thomas Browne, to be used in the Bury St Edmunds witch trial and the accusations against two Lowestoft women, the colonial magistrates also accepted its validity and their trials proceeded." Wikipedia under the headings "Salem witch trials, Spectral Evidence". See: Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of Sir Thomas Browne, pages 197-99: "The sheets of the whole volume were reissued in 1716 and were added to Hale's Pleas of the Crown"; Diana and Jeremy Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, Volume 1, page 352, No. 966 listing the first edition of 1683; Leslie F. Maxwell, A Bibliography of English Law 1651-1800, Volume 2, page 54, No. 4. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: PLEAS OF THE CROWN, IN FIVE PARTS WHICH INCLUDES TRYAL OF WITCHES AT THE ASSIZES HELD AT BURY ST. EDMUNDS.
• Publisher: London printed by J. N. Assignee of Edw. Sayer for D. Brown et al
• Publication Date: 1716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition