[Alphabetical notebook of Henry Ridgely
Contributors: Ridgely, Henry, fl. 1784.
Published: 1789
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
Subjects: Law -- Maryland.; Law reports, digests, etc. -- Great Britain.; Lawyers -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.; Manuscripts, American.
Notes: Ms.
Supplied title based on actual contents and on inscribed name; the work contains thematically grouped points of law extracted from published reports of English high courts, from cases tried in Maryland, and from the acts of the Maryland Assembly. Several times the reader is referred to the uncertain compiler's ("my") Cases and to his Note files (neither known to have appeared in print).
Inscription "Henry Ridgely of Green., June 12, 1784" appears on leaf [1]a. The ca. 200 captions which give the book its basic structure are written in the hand of the inscription; all substantive text entered under the captions, incl. additions, is written by one other person.
Presumably the second of two volumes; the thematic captions begin with "Idiots and lunatics" and end with "Year Day and waste."
The date 1784 may be the date of the inception of the notebook (or of the volume); the numbered entries (varying in number from one to over 20) under single captions were accumulated over time. A source repeatedly quoted and cited is Isaac Espinasse whose digest of Nisi prius actions appeared first in 1789 (in America, in 1791).
About one-third of the captions have no entries (page blank except for the caption).
Written (partly by Henry Ridgely) in Maryland?
Written parallel to the spine, in one long column which begins with the caption placed (with few exceptions) at the fore edge of a verso, and continues toward fore edge of the opposite recto.
Leaves [171-187] and [189-190] are blank; [173] mutilated, only stub remaining.