Legal commonplace book, 1683-1684

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0096 MS 538
Held at	: Senate House Library, University of London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/our-collections ›
Full title	: Legal commonplace book, 1683-1684
Date(s)	: 1683-1684
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume containing 331 leaves
Name of creator(s)	: Possibly: Baynes | John | fl 1683-1684 | lawyer
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

John Baynes was possibly the father of another John Baynes, also a lawyer, who lived c 1676-1736.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Manuscript legal commonplace book compiled between the Hilary term 1683 and September 1684, with additions up to c 1698, and a printed index added in 1680, entitled A brief method of the law. Being an exact alphabetical disposition of all the heads necessary for a perfect common-place useful to all students and professors of the law. A pencilled note on the first leaf suggests that the manuscript was 'probably the property of Mr Serjeant Baynes - if not made by him', on the basis of a letter, wanting, addressed to Baynes and dated 1 Jan 1706. It could not, in fact, have been compiled by John Baynes, serjeant-at-law of the Inner Temple, but could perhaps have been the work of his father of the same name and inn of court.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Single item.

Conditions governing access:

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Uncatalogued material may not be seen. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

Finding aids:

Collection level description.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The manuscript contains four bookplates, including those of Sir William Lee, Chief Justice of the King's Bench (1688-1754), William Lee Antonie (1764-1815), and Francis Henry Jeune, Baron St Helier (1843-1905). There is also a 19th century bookplate of the Lee family of Hartwell, Buckinghamshire. A note on the inner front cover by John Lee (d 1866), states that 'These manuscripts after the decease of Chief Justice [William] Lee were sent with many of his books & papers from his house in Bloomsbury Square to Totteridge Park, Hertfordshire, and afterwards from thence to Hartwell House after the decease of his grand-daughter - Mrs. Arrowsmith [Louisa Lee, later wife of Edward Arrowsmith]'.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Given to the University of London Library by New College, Hampstead in 1960.

Allied Materials

Related material:

University of London MS 539 is another legal commonplace book with a similar provenance.

The papers of the Lee family are in the Buckinghamshire Record Office.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 2001