Court-Hand Restored or, The Student's Assistant in Reading Old Deeds

2006. ISBN-13: 9781616196899; ISBN-10: 1616196890. Preferred Edition of a Rosetta Stone for Early English Legal Documents Wright, Andrew. Martin, Charles, Trice, Editor. Court-Hand Restored or, The Student's Assistant in Reading Old Deeds, Charters, Records, Etc. Neatly Engraved..., Describing the Old Law Hands, With Their Contractions and Abbreviations. With an Appendix Containing the Ancient Names of Places in Great Britain and Ireland; An Alphabetical Table of Ancient Surnames; and a Glossography of Latin Words Found in the Works of the Most Eminent Lawyers, and Other Ancient Writings, But Not in Any Modern Dictionaries. Originally published: London: Reeves and Turner, 1879. xviii, 99 pp. Thirty plates. Reprinted 2006 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 9781584775492. ISBN-10: 1584775491. Paperback. New. $24.95 * By 1776, the year Wright published the first edition of Court-Hand Restored, the written conventions of early English legal documents, which had been taught for generations, were becoming esoteric. Concerned that younger lawyers would be unable to understand the work of their predecessors, Wright intended his work to be a kind of Rosetta stone. Long a standard work, this reference went through ten editions by 1912. It remains an indispensable guide when consulting early charters, deeds or records. The ninth edition, the source of our reprint, is preferred because it is the last issued with engraved plates (rather than the photostat plates used in the otherwise-identical tenth edition).