His Grace the Duke of Beaufort Against John Crawshay Bailey and..

1863. Don't Trespass on My Land! [Trial]. Bailey, John Crawshay, Primary Defendant. Somerset, Henry Charles FitzRoy, 8th Duke of Beaufort [1824-1899], Plaintiff. In the Common Pleas. His Grace the Duke of Beaufort Against John Crawshay Bailey and Others. For Trespass on Cwmdu Hill, In the Parish of St. Michael Cwmdu, Breconshire. Report of the Trial Before Mr. Justice Mellor and a Special Jury, At Brecon, On the 21st, 23d, And 24th of March, 1863. Watkins, Hooper, Baylis, And Baker, 11 Sackville Street, London, Solicitors for His Grace. [London: Printed by Strangeways & Walden, (1863)]. iv, 284, [2] pp. Octavo (9-1/2" x 6-1/4"; 24.5 x 15.5 cm). Textured cloth with later cloth rebacking, printed paper label to spine, endpapers renewed. Light rubbing and minor shelfwear, faint dampstaining to boards, minor bubbling of cloth in places, moderate toning to interior, mostly negligible light foxing and soiling to a few leaves, inscription "To be kept with His Grace's Breconshire Muniments/ C. Baker/ 29 Apl. 1863" to head of title page. $300. * Somerset, the 8th Duke of Beaufort, was a British peer, military officer and Conservative politician. This case centered on trespassing by members of the public on some of his vast property holdings (about 51,000 acres) in Wales. The defendants, nearby farmers, alleged that the portions of the land in question were part of their estates, but the court found for the Duke. This copy was apparently retained and filed by Charles Baker, one of the Duke's attorneys in the case, who was also an antiquarian and the duke's "steward of seignories of Gower and Kilvey." This is a scarce title. OCLC locates 3 copies in North American law libraries (Columbia, Harvard, Jenkins Law Library). Powys-Land Club, Collections Historical and Archaeological Relating to Montgomeryshire 5:407.