Crim Con Between a Lawyer's Clerk and His Mistress: Fairburn's..

1808. No Copies Located in the United States [Trial]. Hodgson, Charles, Defendant. Crim. Con. Between a Lawyer's Clerk and His Mistress. Fairburn's Edition of the Trial Between Joseph Fowler, An Attorney, And Chas. Hodgson, His Clerk, For Criminal Conversation with the Plaintiff's Wife, Which was Tried at the Court of Common Pleas, Before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, And a Special Jury, July 13, 1808. Taken in Short Hand. Embellished with an Engraved Frontispiece, Representing "Her Dear Charles" Putting Her Ear-rings in Her Ears. London: Published by John Fairburn, [1808]. 17, [1] pp. Folding frontispiece. Octavo (8-1/4" x 5"). Disbound stab-stitched pamphlet housed in recent card folder with annotations to front. Moderate toning, somewhat heavier to exterior, faint offsetting to title page, text block split between pp. 10-11. Owner signature "Renier" to verso of frontispiece, small ink "5" to upper outside corner of title page, owner initials "AR" to upper inside corner of last page. Rare. $350. * Only edition. When Joseph Fowler discovered an affair between his wife and his clerk, he sued for damages "for the loss of the society of his wife" (1). It was largely agreed at court that Mrs. Fowler had instigated the affair, and Lord Mansfield declined to make a large monetary award. Fowler was granted a modest ?150 in damages. This pamphlet belonged to Anne Renier [1911?-1988]. She and her husband, Fernand Gabriel Renier [1905-1988], were important collectors of popular books, pamphlets and ephemera. OCLC locates 2 copies worldwide (University of British Columbia, University of Oxford). Library Hub locates no additional copies.