A Succinct Digest of the Laws Relating to Bankrupts..

1791. Copy of a 1791 Summary of Bankruptcy Law that Belonged to a Prominent Philadelphia Lawyer [Bankruptcy]. [Great Britain]. A Succinct Digest of the Laws Relating to Bankrupts: In Which All the Reported, And Several Manuscript Cases Upon this Important Subject, From the First Passing of the Bankrupt Laws, In the Time of Henry the Eighth, To the Commencement of Michaelmas Term in the Thirty-First Year of George the Third, Are Inserted, And the Respective Rights and Duties of the Commissioners, Creditors and Bankrupt Discussed and Explained: Together with the Several Modes of Proceeding, And Most Approved Precedents, From the Act of Bankruptcy and the Opening of the Commission, To the Last Examination and Allowance of the Certificate, And the Whole System of the Bankrupt Laws Rendered Easy and Intelligible to Every Capacity. Dublin: Printed by Brett Smith, For E. Lynch [et al.], 1791. [xvi], 192, lxxii, [26] pp. Octavo (7-3/4" x 5"; 19.8 x 12.5 cm). Modern quarter cloth over plain paper boards, lettering piece and gilt fillets and title to spine, endpapers renewed. Minor soiling to exterior, front hinge split (before title page), rear hinge starting (before rear free endpaper). Moderate toning to interior, very light foxing in a few places, library punch stamp and ink shelf number to title page affecting text without loss to legibility, early owner signature of "E Shippen Burd" to title page and first pages of preface and table of contents. $450. * Reissue of the first edition, London, 1791. As indicated in the preface, this book was intended for "merchants and traders" rather than "professors of the law." The contents are accordingly "divested, as much as it is possible, of technical expressions and profession idioms, and arranged in such order, that the several parts may become perspicuous and familiar to every capacity" ([xiv]-[xvi]). As Lemoine notes, Irish editions of English law books were usually produced in smaller formats and were generally preferred by American purchasers as more convenient to take with them while riding circuits. The former owner of our copy, Edward Shippen Burd [1779-1848], apparently agreed. A wealthy and prominent Philadelphia attorney, Shippen Burd was the son of Edward Burd [1749-1833], a prothonotary of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court who served as an officer in the Revolutionary War.