Alfred’s Doombook: The Anglo-Saxon Foundations of Magna Carta

Alfred’s Doombook: The Anglo-Saxon Foundations of Magna Carta

• December 2nd, 2019
• by specialcollections
• in Guest Contributors, Uncategorized

From time to time we like to post historical essays written by recent Law School graduates. Today’s post is a work of intellectual history by Christopher Collins, a 2019 graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law who is currently a graduate student in the UA College of Communication and Information Sciences. Chris is working on his MLIS. The title of his essay is “Alfred’s Doombook: The Anglo-Saxon Foundations of Magna Carta.”

 

Alfred’s Doombook: The Anglo-Saxon Foundations of Magna Carta

Magna Carta might often be misunderstood, but far worse is that King Alfred’s Doombook[1] is so neglected. A.E. Dick Howard wrote that Magna Carta “became and remains today one of the great birthrights of men who love liberty.”[2] But on June 15, 1215, it had nowhere near the significance it has assumed in recent years––its force of law actually declined over the next several centuries.[3] J.C. Holt even opened his magnum opus on the Charter with the statement that “Magna Carta was a failure.”[4] And yet we know it as Magna Carta––the Great Charter; but it was less an act of greatness than a preservation of the status quo[5] and perhaps even a bad-faith baronial power grab.[6]

Much of Magna Carta’s influence derives from the fact that it was thought for many centuries to be the oldest extant consolidated written statement of English law.[7] Even after the rediscovery of the old Anglo-Saxon laws, Magna Carta continued to be worshipped as “a sacred text, the nearest approach to an irrepealable ‘fundamental statute’ that England has ever had.”[8] King Alfred’s Doombook, however, is the oldest extant consolidated written statement of English law, and it is time to rediscover it as the true founding document of Anglo-American legal heritage.[9]

This paper aims to show that while Magna Carta is rightfully revered as “a foundation stone of English and American legal rights,”[10] it is not the origin of our liberty-loving rights. Magna Carta is rather a later stone placed upon an Anglo-Saxon legal foundation started by Alfred’s compilation of laws, the Doombook. King Alfred compiled these laws toward the end of the ninth century.[11] He consolidated longstanding customs and practices from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and added Biblical authority.[12] Alfred’s goal in promulgating his Doombook aimed at uniting the English amid existential threats posed by large-scale Viking invasions. And the English kings seemed to base their authority partly on continuity with their predecessors––the legitimate king preserved the traditions of his predecessors, and this is the topic of Part I of this paper.

Kings Alfred and John actually had a great deal in common, as will be discussed in Part II, though history has been kind to the former and critical of the latter. Both were unlikely kings, favored by their fathers and dutiful to their brothers. But Alfred inherited a kingdom on the verge of annihilation whereas John would be crowned king of an efficient and almost automated governing apparatus.[13] This apparatus owed much to the reforms of John’s father, Henry II, but the system itself was built on the works of Alfred and the laws of his Doombook.

Parts III and IV will discuss Magna Carta and the Doombook. Part III will mention two fields that show no Anglo-Saxon precedent: the Charter’s “immediate use” provisions and the introduction of environmental law into the realm of English legislation. Part IV will discuss four common threads that show a continuum between Magna Carta and Alfred’s Doombook. These threads involve the regulation of customs and immigration; the rights of widows and the freedom of marriage; the idea that the king is not above the law and his need to seek counsel from his subjects; and the idea of due process and the equal application of the law of the land.

Every influence English law encountered, including Norman influence, has left an imprint on its character, but the Conquest merely wove itself into the established Anglo-Saxon fabric.[14] England did not begin anew when William and his Normans conquered the island.[15] The Anglo-Saxon system persisted and continued to provide the matrix within which English law would grow.[16] Magna Carta, like many famous tapestries from the Norman and Angevin era, is made of intricate stitching. But the first stitches to Magna Carta were not Norman or Angevin––they were Alfred’s.[17]

2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction: An Exhibit

• October 4th, 2019
• by specialcollections
• in Exhibits

The winner of the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction is Sharon Bala’s The Boat People. Bala is an author living in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. She is the ninth author to win the prize authorized by the late Harper Lee for a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the power of lawyers to effect change in society.

The prize was first awarded nine years ago to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the publication of Lee’s world-famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a joint award of the University of Alabama School of Law and the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal. This year’s winner was chosen by a distinguished panel of writers and scholars, including Robert Barnes, U.S. Supreme Court correspondent at the Washington Post; Steven Hobbs, Tom Bevill Chairholder of Law, UA’s School of Law; Claire Hamner Matturro, author and alumna, UA’s School of Law; Utz McKnight, chair of the department of gender and race studies and professor of political science, UA; and Gin Phillips, author, “Fierce Kingdom.”

The selection committee praised The Boat People for answering Lee’s charge to recognize legal fiction that shows lawyers making positive changes in society. The Boat People follows the story of a group of Sri Lankan refugees who escape a bloody civil war only to arrive on Vancouver Island’s shores to face the threat of deportation and accusations of terrorism. “The Boat People touched me, haunted me, and educated me—in much the same way To Kill a Mockingbird did when I first read it as an impressionable child,” said Claire Hamner Matturro, University of Alabama School of Law graduate and author. “It’s the kind of book I wish the whole world could read with an open mind and an open heart.”

“The Boat People is timely and powerful. Even those who think they are versed in the various vantage points involved in the complex area of immigration will gain a deeper appreciation of the nuances by reading Sharon Bala’s first novel,” said Molly McDonough, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal. “The book explores the perspectives of desperate refugees; the attorneys who–voluntarily or not–are trying to help them; and the adjudicators who are asked to make potentially life-or-death decisions with little to no evidence.”

Bala responded: “It’s an absolute honor to learn that The Boat People has won the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Writing this novel was a meditation on empathy. My greatest hope is that it has the same effect on readers.”

The 2019 prize was awarded on August 29 at the Library of Congress in conjunction with the National Book Festival.

Recent Acquisitions: A Treatise Collected Out of the Statutes of this Commonwealth, and According to Common Experience of the Lawes, Concerning the Office and Authorities of Coroners and Sheriffs

• July 31st, 2019
• by specialcollections
• in General, Recent Acquisitions

The latest addition to our collection of works dating from mid-seventeenth century England is a compilation of laws by one John Wilkinson. Its title is A Treatise Collected Out of the Statutes of this Commonwealth, and According to Common Experience of the Lawes, Concerning the Office and Authorities of Coroners and Sheriffs. He published it via The Company of Stationers in 1657. By this time there had been no king on the throne since the execution of Charles I in 1649. Puritans and supporters of Oliver Cromwell’s “Protectorate” were very much in control of the nation. They expected sheriffs and other officials to enforce punitive laws based, more or less overtly, on Puritan notions of morality. Consider this passage, from page 174 of Wilkinson’s book:

“Also you shall enquire if any Ale-house keeper or other person do keep any unlawful games in his or their house or houses, or elsewhere, as cards, dice, tables, loggers, quoits, bowles, or such like. In this case the house-keeper loseth for every day forty shillings, and every player six shillings eight pence for every time. Also Constables ought to search monethly [sic] for such unlawful games and disorders in Ale-houses upon pain of forty shillings, and they may arrest such as they find playing unlawful games.”

In 1657 Englishmen still had three years to wait before the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy and the resumption, in large part, of ordinary games of chance. It may be worth noting that the American essayist H.L. Mencken famously described Puritanism as the “haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

For Dr. Julie Griffith’s cataloging of Wilkinson’s Treatise, see below:

Title A treatise collected out of the statutes of this common-wealth, and according to common experience of the lawes, concerning the office and authorities of coroners and sherifes : together with an easie and plaine method for the keeping of a court-leet, court-baron, and hundred-court / by John Wilkinson of Bernards Inne, Gent. ; to which is added the return of writts, by John Kitchin Esquire, now all published in English

Author Wilkinson, John, of Barnard’s Inn

 

Imprint London : Printed for the Company of Stationers, and are to be sold by W. Lee, D. Pakeman, and G. Bedell at their shops in Fleetstreet, 1657

 

LOCATION	CALL #	NOTE	STATUS
Special Collections	KD7296 .W55 1657		Available

 

Call # KD7296 .W55 1657 Phys. Description [4], 288, [2], 289-302, 305-378, [6] p. ; 17 cm. (8vo) Note Signatures: A² B-2B8 Indexed In: Wing (2nd ed.) W2246 ESTC R6569 Note Includes index Subject Coroners — Great Britain — Early works to 1800 Sheriffs — Great Britain — Early works to 1800 Courts baron and courts leet — Early works to 1800 Alt Author Kitchin, John. Retourna brevium novelment corrigee. English Note Special t.p.: Return of writs newly corrected

 

 

Pieces of Paper: Cards and Certificates and Their Role in the Recent Past

• June 27th, 2019
• by specialcollections
• in Exhibits, General

 

“Welcome to the party, we’re all just papers in the wind.” From “Run, Run, Run,” by Jo Jo Gunne, 1972. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS7pOaEEOTs]

Several decades into the digital revolution, it is clear that digital devices have had an enormous impact upon the routines of literacy. This effect is every bit as profound as that brought about by the print revolution of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Moreover, the digital universe is arguably much broader than the universe of moveable type. After all, the latter, in simplistic terms, was only a superior way to deal with a medium—parchment/paper—that had been around for millennia. In both cases, the “revolution” involved enhancements in the production, dissemination, and storage of information. But power over information has always meant power plain and simple for the persons in charge of society.

With that in mind, let us consider that persons of rank have had, for more than a millennium, access to documents attesting to their property, status, or worth. Consider the Anglo Saxon concept of “bookland,” which involved royal land grants by means of charters or diplomas, deposited for safety among the records of a monastery or abbey. Moving forward to the early modern world, well-connected travelers regularly carried with them letters of introduction—the ancestors of the recommendations (paper or electronic) eagerly sought by today’s applicants for jobs or college admissions. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the need for documentary endorsement had touched the lives of people who were in no sense exalted. For example, a slave in the American south was required to carry a pass signed by his master in order to set foot beyond the master’s property. Ironically, in the last stringent days of the Confederacy, southern white folks had to carry a stamped pass in order to take railroad journeys; such was the effect of wartime bureaucracy.

Soon after the turn of the last century, several forces came together in the United States—industrialization, immigration and population growth, urban planning and ever more far reaching bureaucracies—to produce a society whose members were defined, increasingly, by their paper documents. A standardized system of birth certificates was in place in the United States by about 1900.[1] By the time children born in that year were well-grown, they needed documentation, identity cards, or printed licenses to live their lives. These pieces of paper determined how an individual could function as a citizen. It was necessary, for example, to present a voter registration certificate at the polls. Likewise, most states required persons wishing to live in legally married bliss to secure a marriage license. Speaking of ubiquitous documents, operators of motor vehicles were commonly required to carry driver’s licenses while operating cars or trucks. Paper money had been common in this country since the time of the American Revolution, but by the early twentieth century, the “personal check” had become the most convenient means of paying ordinary debts.[2]

As this generation approached the age of high school they confronted a world at war. Some of the young men were drafted into America’s World War I armed forces—a path that carried with it an imposing battery of records and identity cards. The young men and women who went to college received student ID cards; those who completed college earned diplomas and membership cards from alumni associations. Graduates who wished to practice law or medicine displayed their diplomas on office walls next to licenses issued by professional organizations or state certifying boards.

Just as these “pieces of paper” confirmed what we were qualified to do, they also governed where we were allowed to go. Travel on such forms of commercial transportation as ships, railroads, airplanes and buses was available only to those who held printed tickets. To anyone who has ridden a passenger train, Cary Grant’s ability (in North by Northwest) to travel without a ticket from New York to Chicago is one of his more impressive achievements. Attendance at many important events (weddings, graduations, recitals) required a printed invitation. The right to attend an even larger number of events—movies, plays, concerts, operas, sporting competitions, conventions—required tickets for which one had to pay.

Recent Acquisitions, the Bounds Law Library

• June 4th, 2019
• by specialcollections
• in Recent Acquisitions

Recent Library Acquisitions, the Bounds Law Library

Today we announce some recent additions to our Special Collections holdings. In particular we’d like to call attention to some titles associated with the troubles, execution, and printed afterlife of England’s King Charles I (reigned 1625-1649).

This monarch, the second of the House of Stuart, inherited from his father James I an ongoing controversy with the House of Commons. Charles’ willingness to collect taxes not passed by Parliament, to jail intransigent taxpayers without trial, to impose martial law and to billet soldiers in civilian houses led both houses of Parliament to assert—in 1628, by means of the “Petition of Right”—that such practices violated the rights of Englishmen. Charles, for his part, maintained that as monarch he had the Divine Right to rule according to his conscience. In 1629 he prorogued Parliament, following which he ruled without it for eleven years. During this time Charles was increasingly associated with arbitrary government—and with the suppression of the religious movement known as Puritanism, carried out by his authoritarian archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. By 1642, Charles and his royalist followers were at war with Parliament and its Puritan/Presbyterian supporters. After the battle of Naseby (1645) the fortunes of war turned against the royalists; by the end of 1647 the king was in captivity. A year later, Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army had secured effective power in England. On January 20, 1649, the House of Commons (a much-reduced “Rump” Commons) put Charles on trial for his life before a specially created “High Court of Justice,” which convicted him of high crimes. He was beheaded on January 30, 1649.

The first of Bounds’ recent acquisitions to be presented is The Regall Apology, or, The Declaration of the Commons, Feb. 11. 1647, Canvassed: Wherein Every Objection, and Their Whole Charge Against His Majesty is Cleared, and for the Most Part, Retorted (1648). This small quarto volume of just under one hundred pages was published anonymously, and wisely so, since neither Cavaliers nor Cromwellians scrupled to persecute authors or publishers. As its subtitle declares, the Regall Apology is an answer to charges recently endorsed by the Commons—namely, that the king had shown numerous instances of negotiating in bad faith and that he had supported “papists” at home and in foreign lands, notably in Ireland.[1]

The king’s execution did not snuff out devotion to his cause; indeed it made him a martyr. This is shown by another Special Collections title, the anonymous Reliquae Sacrae Carolinae, or, The Works of that Great Monarch and Glorious Martyr, King Charls [sic] the I, printed safely in The Hague in 1650. Bound in duodecimo (perfect for carrying in a pocket, discreetly), this volume is a collection of letters, speeches and proclamations, together with Charles’ answer to the charges that the House of Commons had brought against him in February 1647.[2] After the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, Charles’ admirers did not have to exercise caution. Indeed, the king’s cult proved its durability; 1894 saw the formation of the Society of King Charles the Martyr, still in existence today.[3]

A second recent addition to our Special Collections is Thomas Manby’s An Exact Abridgment of all the Statutes, as Well Repealed as in Force,  Made in the Reigns of King Charles I and King Charles II, Until the End of the Sessions of Parliament the 29th of March 1673. This small format volume was printed in London by Henry Twyford, John Streater, and Elizabeth Flesher in 1674, and it quietly provides some telling evidence. For one thing, it skips from “Anno Decimo Septimo” (the 17^th year, i.e., 1642) of Charles I, to “Anno Duodecimo” (the 12^th year) of Charles II.[4] The latter acceded to the throne in 1660, the year of Stuart “Restoration”; but Manby, like with other royalists, counted Charles II’s years as king from the murder of his father in 1649. Thus his duodecimo year would have been 1661. Thereby Manby effectively skipped over the English Civil War, the Commonwealth (proclaimed in 1649), Cromwell’s Protectorate (1653-1659), the brief Protectorate of Cromwell’s son Richard, and the ad hoc measures that followed. To Royalists, the enactments of those years were null and void, simply not worthy of discussion.

Lest it be thought that Bounds’ Special Collections purchases only royalist titles, consider our recent acquisition of Baron George Nugent Grenville’s Memorials of John Hampden, His Party and His Times (London: George Bell and Sons, 1899). This reprint of a biography first published in the 1830s tells of the life and exploits of a Puritan hero fatally wounded in 1643—whose name lives on in the history of Hampden Sydney College in Virginia.

PMP

Our cataloger for these titles is Dr. Julie Griffith. The catalog records of the above works are as follows:

Title The regall apology, or, The declaration of the Commons, Feb. 11. 1647. canvassed : wherein every objection, and their whole charge against His Majesty is cleared, and for the most part, retorted

 

Author Bate, George, 1608-1669

 

Imprint [London : s.n.], Printed in the yeare, 1648

 

LOCATION	CALL #	NOTE	STATUS
Special Collections	DA396.A3 B3		Available
.

 

Call # DA396.A3 B3 Phys. Description [2], 92, [2] p. ; 19 cm (4to) text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier Note Published anonymously. By George Bate. Cf. Halkett & Laing (2nd ed.) Place of publication from Wing The last leaf is blank Indexed In: Wing (2nd ed., 1994) B1090 Thomason E.436[5] ESTC R17396 Subject England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons — Early works to 1800 Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649 Alt Title Regall apology Declaration of the Commons, Feb. 11. 1647. canvassed

 

 

Title An exact abridgment of all the statutes, as well repealed as in force. Made in the reigns of King Charles I. and King Charles II. Until the end of the sessions of Parliament the 29th of March 1673. With a catalogue of all publick and private acts. And also, of the lords, spiritual and temporal of the House of peeres. And the names of the members of the House of commons, and the counties, cities and burroughs for which they serve … By T. Manby

 

Author Manby, Thomas, active 1666-1675

 

Imprint London : Printed by Henry Twyford, John Streater, and Elizabeth Flesher, 1674

 

LOCATION	CALL #	NOTE	STATUS
Special Collections	KD140 .M36 1674		Available

 

Call # KD140 .M36 1674 Phys. Description 20 preliminary leaves, 194, [24] pages ; 17 cm text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier Subject Abridgments — Great Britain Alt Author Great Britain. Laws, etc

 

Title Memorials of John Hampden, his party and his times / by Lord Nugent

 

Author Nugent, George Nugent Grenville, Baron, 1788-1850

 

Imprint London : George Bell, 1899

 

LOCATION	CALL #	NOTE	STATUS
Special Collections	DA396.H18 N9 1899		Available

 

Call # DA396.H18 N9 1899 Phys. Description lxxv, 420 pages : facsm. ; 19 cm text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier Series Bohn’s historical library Bohn’s historical library Bibliog. Includes bibliographical references and index Subject Nugent, George Nugent Grenville, Baron, 1788-1850 Hampden, John, 1594-1643 Statesmen — Great Britain — Biography Great Britain — Politics and government — 1603-1649 Great Britain — Church history — 17th century Great Britain — History — Charles I, 1625-1649 Alt Author Forster, John, 1812-1876

 

[1] The charges, which also included accusations that Charles had in effect murdered his father James I, can be found in A Declaration of the Commons of England, in Parliament Assembled, Expressing Their Reasons and Grounds of Passing the Late Resolutions Touching No Farther Address or Application To Be Made to the King, (London: Printed for Edward Husband, [February 15,] 1647).

[2] For the charges, see supra, note 1, A Declaration of the Commons of England, in Parliament Assembled.

[3] For a Wikipedia article on the society, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_King_Charles_the_Martyr. See also Andrew Lacey, The Cult of King Charles the Martyr (Rochester, New York: Boydell Press, 2003).

[4] Thomas Manby, An Exact Abridgment of all the Statutes, as Well Repealed as in Force, Made in the Reigns of King Charles I and King Charles II . . . (London: Printed by Henry Twyford, John Streater, and Elizabeth Flesher, 1674), [vi-viii], [ix].

Tour of an Unusual Book: The Black Spot

• January 30th, 2019
• by specialcollections
• in General, Preserved in Amber, Unique or Annotated Works

The Bounds Copy of J.W. Shepherd’s Digest of the Alabama Reports from the 17^th to the 29^th Volume, N.S. [New Series]. Montgomery: Barrett & Wimbush, Book and Job Printers, 1858.

Our “Preserved in Amber” series of posts seeks to celebrate unique and interesting objects, usually but not always a particular volume. The uniqueness typically comes from one striking feature—such as the correspondence between Hannis Taylor and J.B. Bury, pasted in Bounds’ copy of Taylor’s Science of Jurisprudence and featured in our October 12, 2016 post. To the law review spader or other casual user, there would be nothing particularly arresting about our Shepherd’s Digest. Further investigation, however, reveals a book that is interestingly signed and tantalizingly inscribed. Still more investigation reveals a mysterious blemish—quite unexpected. This latter, to be sure, was a feature that invoked this writer’s inner twelve-year-old, who arrived equipped with one of his favorite books.

First, the Book and Its Owners:

J.W. Shepherd, author of the Digest, was born in Madison County, Alabama, in 1826. He graduated from Yale College in 1844 and returned home to practice law. By 1851 he was practicing in Montgomery and was tapped as the reporter for the Alabama Supreme Court, a post he would fill (with various interruptions) until the early 1890s.[1] In line with regional publishing practices of the time, Shepherd published his 1858 Digest close to home, with Barrett & Wimbush of Montgomery.

The Bounds copy of the Digest is inscribed with three names on the front pastedown leaf. The first, written in red pencil, is that of R.W. Walker. This signature could well be that of Richard Wilde Walker, who in 1859 would be appointed to fill a vacancy on the Alabama Supreme Court. Walker would go on to serve in the Confederate Provisional Congress and (1863-1865) in the Confederate Senate.[2] In 1859, Walker sold the Digest to one Thomas Alan Jones, according to an inscription in Jones’ handwriting. At some point thereafter, Jones “presented” the Digest to James Irvine, quite likely the James Irvine who would represent Lauderdale County in the Alabama constitutional convention of 1865.[3]

Further Study:

The first indication that the Walker-Jones-Irvine Digest contains anything unusual can be found on the verso of the rear free flyleaf. There can be seen the remains of an inscription in pencil, almost wholly erased but beginning with the words “Preposterous Monstrosity” and ending with the words “to take it back.” It is written, apparently, in Walker’s hand; and its erasure probably represents nothing more than a courtesy from one owner to the next. Or was there something written that Walker or one of the book’s other owners didn’t want anyone to read? Unless we can stage a highly specific question-and-answer séance, we’ll probably never know.

Moving toward an examination of the exterior text block, we see more proof that every printed book—mass-produced or otherwise—can become a unique object in the hands of its readers. Part of this Digest’s individuality is inked on the fore-edge of the text block in the form of a handy index. The categories are broad, certain to have been applicable to the practice of the period: Criminal, Probate, Chancery and Civil. Each of these words was accompanied by an arrow marking its extent in the text, and also by a number from 1 (opposite Criminal) to 4 (opposite Civil). The intent—purely practical—is far removed from that of fore-edge artists who have decorated books with symbolic, heraldic, or decorative images.[4]

Proceeding to the actual text of the Digest, we see that one reader (at least) has resorted to marking places with often rather emphatic dog-ears. These dog-ears are placed on or opposite to pages containing the following topics: Constitutional Law (p. 30); Court and Jury (p. 37); Pleading (p. 95); Statute of Limitations (p. 197); Assumpsit (p. 403); Evidence (pp. 626-627); and Execution (p. 630).Someone, in addition, drew (in ink) brackets around three sections of “The Trial of the Right of Property” (p. 761). Aside from these indications of research interests, there are few ordinary alterations to this copy of the Digest; but the dog-ears and marks suggest that its owners pursued the ordinary practice of law.

Interesting Possibilities:

We encounter a much less ordinary set of marks beginning on p. 417. What presents itself, in the middle of §50 of the article on Attachment is a virtually circular mark 1.5 centimeters in diameter. It is a consistent dark brown in color; it has moved through the paper to produce an identical mark on p. 418. Each of these marks has stained its facing page (pp. 416, 419). The look of these dark marks suggests that they were burned—burned with considerable care, possibly by means of a fair-sized lit cigar.[5] For all the world, they look strangely familiar, like something that resonates in memory.

Of course! What we’re seeing is like a black spot in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 classic Treasure Island. All at once the air seems full of references to lubbers and swabs—charged, too, with the likelihood that we’ll catch a glimpse of the fearsome one-legged seafaring man, Long John Silver. Just outside my office, surely, Billy Bones is explaining to young Jim Hawkins that the black spot is “a summons, mate,” issued by a pirate crew to someone they wished to depose or kill. I’m reminded of a scene late in Treasure Island, where Jim Hawkins watches the pirates preparing a black spot. They were clustering around a campfire; one was “on his knees in their midst.” Hawkins saw “the blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying colors”; and “he had a book as well as a knife in his hand.”[6]

Melancholy Conclusions:

After a few days’ thought and very little (to be honest) further research, I am forced to admit that it is unlikely that our Digest ever fell into the hands of pirates, or even lawyers’ children pretending to be pirates.[7] For one thing, its spot[s] do not conform to the rules laid down in Treasure Island. Pirates of that book’s Caribbean cut their black spots out of books, leaving one side unscorched. The unscorched side was supposed to be blank, so the pirates could write on it some cryptic sentence of doom. The Walker-Jones-Irvine spot, on the contrary, is burned on both sides, and there is no evidence that anyone ever took a knife to the volume.

Moreover, the black spot made by firelight in Treasure Island (see above) still carried s few words of text—a spookily burned fragment of the Book of Revelations, namely: “Without are dogs and . . . murderers.” [8] The Bounds Digest also boasts darkened texts surrounding its double spot, but the texts are all about regulations for the attachment of property. One, for example, commences: “When a garnishee, against whom a judgm[ent has] been rendered by a justice [of the pea]ce, removes the case to the [unintelligible] [c]ourt . . .”[9] To be sure, this passage once provided a revealing look into legal maneuvers that preceded the carting away of one’s possessions; but it is a bit lacking in dramatic pep.

Finally, there are doubts concerning whether pirates ever used black spots at all.[10] Perhaps, after all, it is better to argue that the Digest’s black spot[s] were caused by the carelessness of a smoker, piratical or otherwise, who thought he was putting his cigar down into an ashtray.

PMP

---

[1] Thomas M. Owen, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, introduction by Milo B. Howard, Jr. (1921; Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Company, 1978), IV: 1543-1544. Willis Brewer, in his Alabama: Her History, Resources, War Record, and Public Men from 1540 to 1872 (Montgomery: Barrett & Brown, 1872), 474-475, said that Shepherd was “a gentleman of a retiring disposition, but esteemed for many excellencies of head and heart.”

[2] Brewer, Alabama, Her History, 355-356.

[3] Owen, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, III: 885.

[4] See Roy Stokes, A Bibliographical Companion (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1989), 117-118.

[5] An alternate theory is that the spots were formed by the application of ink. This seems less likely because the marks on pp. 417-418 are each enclosed by a little halo of what appears to be scorched paper. And ink, unless applied by a deft hand, would quite possibly not have been so neat.

[6] Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University press, 2013), 22, 238.

[7] The latter possibility is still open to speculation, of course.

[8] Revelation 22:13.

[9] Shepherd, Digest, 417 (§50).

[10] See Wikipedia article “Black Spot (Treasure Island).”

The Hugo Black Study at the Bounds Law Library

• October 22nd, 2018
• by specialcollections
• in Collections, Exhibits, Guest Contributors

The editors welcome this post from our colleague, Dr. Julie Seraphina Griffith, that offers a glimpse into the home study of United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black through descriptions of its furnishings and numerous books.

The Hugo Black Study at the Bounds Law Library

The Hugo L. Black Collection consists of over one thousand books, personal correspondence, tapes and transcripts of interviews, descriptions of court decisions, office materials, biographical and bibliographical information, photographs, student papers, lecture notes, and personal memorabilia. The collection is stored in several different locations throughout the Bounds Law Library. Hugo Lafayette Black (1886-1971) was born in Clay County, Alabama, and is one of the most distinguished graduates of the University of Alabama’s law school. He served two terms as a United States Senator from 1926-1937, and was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1937 until 1971. Black died shortly after his retirement.

The Hugo L. Black Collection books are located in the Hugo Black Study, which was dedicated 40 years ago during ceremonies that celebrated the relocation of the School of Law in 1978 to a new building.

Renovations made in 2015 include lighting that makes the room and its contents much more visible. Photographic portraits of the Supreme Court can be seen adorning the tops of two walls. Black’s tennis racket is propped against the fireplace and his golf clubs are on the left. Items on Black’s desk include an exquisite black ocean globe, an Art Deco inspired design in which the color black represents the water rather than traditional blue. A smaller globe with blue oceans sits atop a typist’s desk placed by a wall of bookshelves. The Hugo Black Study is centrally located on the main floor of the library, adjacent to the Circulation and Reference Desks. Visitors are able to view the entirety of the study through a partial door that provides a full view of the room and its contents. The study is a replica of Black’s home study in Alexandria, Virginia. It was designed and built to accommodate all the original contents—everything is just as it was when Black was working there on a daily basis.

While the furnishings from Black’s home study in Alexandria, Virginia, were shipped to the library in 1973, most of his favorite books did not arrive until 1983. The study contains over one thousand books, including primary and secondary legal materials, a large collection of historical writings, and other genres. There are, of course, numerous works on law-related topics as well as many other books that reveal his broad reading interests. These range from Thomas Jefferson to poetry to tennis and instructions for playing bridge. Hugo Black was a well-read man.

The books have been catalogued and are now arranged on the shelves, not according to Black’s original shelving preferences but by Library of Congress call number order so that the books can be easily located for research purposes. [1] All the books are accessible via online catalog searches. These books have a location code that indicates their placement in the Hugo Black Study, and another code indicating that they are part of the larger holdings of the library’s John C. Payne Special Collections. [2]

Distinguishing features of Black’s books are the broad subject matter, variation of format—cheap paperback copies are juxtaposed with valuable rare books—and the fact that he read and reread the materials regularly. In some books, his written comments reveal an ongoing conversation between Black and the author.

In addition, Black wrote to himself as he reread the books, providing examples of how his thought developed regarding certain topics. Black valued content over container and regularly perused used bookstores and catalogs. Roger K. Newman’s biography of Black contains an entire chapter, entitled “Books Are My Friends,” devoted to Black’s reading habits in which he discusses Black’s literary friendships with Will Durant, Carl Sandburg, and Alfred Knopf, among others. For example, Knopf published a book of Black’s opinions and he “usually took Black to dinner” several times each year. [3]

The classics were a significant influence on Black’s mindset, ideas, and interpretations. He studied Latin and Greek at Ashland College in Clay County, Alabama. This lifelong interest began when, as a law student, he sat in on an undergraduate English course taught by Dr. Charles H. Barnwell. This course prompted his “ever-increasing interest in the literature, philosophy and history of ancient Greece and the Greek way of life.” [4] Biographer Howard Ball comments that Black’s books by and about Greek philosophers, poets, and historians “are worn from repeated use, underlined and replete with marginalia, [and] indicative of the personal conversations Black had with the authors of these books.” [5]

Black also gave these books to his grandchildren, and had both his wives and his law clerks read Pericles and Aristotle, among many other Greek authors. While Aristotle was Black’s “favorite author,” Edith Hamilton’s The Greek Way was Black’s favorite book and the first required reading that he assigned to new law clerks. [6] He was so fond of the works of Hamilton that he “literally coerced his children into reading them, with further admonitions to read Livy or Plutarch when the boys were in college or in the military.” [7] The books in Black’s study include two, five-volume sets of Plutarch’s Lives and Writings; one singular Modern Library edition; and a five-volume set of Essays and Miscellanies, with an introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. [8]

Among the vast array of valuable Hugo Black resources held by the Bounds Law Library is an autographed copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s book, Stride Toward Freedom. The library has shown this inscription to a variety of interested patrons, including local elementary schoolchildren and visiting legal scholars. The inscription reads; “To Justice Hugo Black, In appreciation for your genuine good-will, your perceptive vision, your broad humanitarian concern, and your unswerving devotion to the noble principles of our democracy, with warm regards, Martin King, Jr.”

The Hugo Black Study is extraordinary. In its totality, the study exists apart from its surroundings as an intact historical artifact.  One of Black’s former law clerks, David Vann, upon seeing the study after it was relocated to the library, said that it was “kind of a shock really,” to see the study again. [10] Due to the careful preparation and design that went into the planning of the space, the room’s original furnishings, and the magic of Black’s books, the Hugo Black Study captures an authenticity of spirit that is as when Black used it almost fifty years ago. The essence of its atmosphere remains the same.

Julie Seraphina Griffith

[1] Griffith, Julie. “Digital Description and Access: The Hugo Black Collection at the University of Alabama School of Law Library.” A “New Voices” Award-Winning Paper presented at the 2002 Joint SCLA/SELA Conference. The Southeastern Librarian 51:3 (2003): 26-30.

[2] The Bounds Law Library Special Collections is named after former law professor John C. Payne.

[3] Newman, Roger K. Hugo Black: A Biography. 2^nd edition. New York: Fordham University, 1997: 451-452.

[4] Black, Hugo L. “Reminiscences” Alabama Law Review 18:1 (1965): 3, 7.

[5] Ball, Howard. Hugo Black: Cold Steel Warrior. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996: 7.

[6] Newman, 445-446.

[7] Ball, 7.

[8] Plutarch’s Lives: the Translation called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and revised by A. H. Clough. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1974: 5 volumes.  Plutarch’s Lives: the Translation called Dryden’s. Corrected from the Greek and revised by A.H. Clough. New York: Colonial, 1905: 5 volumes. Plutarch: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Translated by John Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough. New York: Modern Library, 19-?. Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies: Comprising all his Works Collected under the Title of “Morals.” Translated from the Greek by several hands, Corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin. New York: Colonial, 1905: 5 volumes.

[9] Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s gorgeous illustration of Pandora’s Box provides a particularly appropriate example of Black’s treasured classics collection as well as many situations he encountered during his long career as a public servant. Pandora (meaning “all-gifted” in Greek and Black was certainly a gifted man) was given a beautiful box by Jupiter to present to her husband, Epimetheus, who was the brother of Prometheus. When Epimetheus opened the box, only hope remained, after “a multitude of evils and distempers…dispersed themselves all over the world.” Black remained ever hopeful as he addressed a multitude of controversial issues throughout his career.

[10] Pruitt, Paul M., Jr. “The Return of Hugo Black: the Significance of the Hugo Black Collection at the University of Alabama” Alabama Law Review 43:1 (1991): 301.

 

2018 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction: An Exhibit

• September 10th, 2018
• by specialcollections
• in Exhibits

The winner of the 2018 Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction is C.E. Tobisman’s Proof.  Tobisman is an author and appellate attorney living in Los Angeles, California. She is the eighth author to win the prize, authorized by the late Harper Lee, for a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the power of lawyers to effect change in society.

The prize was first awarded eight years ago to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the publication of Lee’s world-famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It is a joint award of the University of Alabama School of Law and the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal. This year’s winner was chosen by a distinguished panel of writers and scholars, including Dr. Hilary Green of the University of Alabama’s Gender and Race Studies Department; attorney and UA Law graduate Jini Koh; Tony Mauro, U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for Law.com and The National Law Journal; and Dr. Sena Jeter Naslund, author and former Director of the Spalding University MFA in Writing.

The Selection Committee praised Proof for answering Lee’s charge to recognize legal fiction that shows lawyers making positive changes in society. Dr. Green wrote that “Proof best captures the spirit of iconic characters [and] the role of the legal profession in addressing social issues.” The book’s protagonist Caroline Auden, wrote Green, “is the perfect cross between lawyer Atticus Finch and the grown-up Scout.”

Mr. Mauro added that “Proof proves that a true page-turner can also have substance. He also noted that character Caroline Auden “takes on elder abuse and corporate skullduggery with quick-witted determination. In the tradition of Harper Lee, Tobisman shows that lawyers can effect societal change.”

“It’s exciting to see this award go to a practicing attorney who’s relatively new to the fiction scene,” said Molly McDonough, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal. “We also love seeing attention being drawn to the important field of elder law.”

Tobisman responded: “I am honored, humbled, and frankly, totally stunned.” She further stated that “The spirit of To Kill a Mockingbird is the spirit of one person’s ability to make the world a little more fair. That the selection committee saw that spirit in my book is something that I will treasure forever.”

The 2018 prize was awarded on August 30 at the Library of Congress in conjunction with the National Book Festival.

In Memoriam, Donald Richard Bounds

• June 25th, 2018
• by specialcollections
• in Uncategorized

We regret to report the passing, on June 22, of Donald Richard Bounds, aged 89 years. Born November 13, 1928 in Illinois, Mr. Bounds graduated from UMS High School in Mobile and was a 1951 graduate of the University of Alabama. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he served in a medical unit of the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Mr. Bounds graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1956; in law school he was a member of the Alabama Law Review.

In 1958 Donald Richard Bounds and Robert T. Cunningham, Sr. founded the law firm of Cunningham Bounds, LLC, which would become one of the most prominent and successful plaintiff’s law firms in the nation. Subsequently Mr. Bounds would serve as president of the Mobile Bar Association, president of the Alabama Trial Lawyers’ Association, and member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Trial lawyers of America. In addition he was a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and a member of the International Society of Barristers, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the American Bar Foundation. In the midst of this exemplary service to the legal profession, Mr. Bounds found time for many charitable activities. The School of Law benefitted from his generosity, including the endowment of a student scholarship in memory of his son Donald Richard Bounds, Jr. In 1998 the Bounds Law Library was named in memory of Donald Richard Bounds, Jr. and Russell Hampton Bounds.

Mr. Bounds is survived by his wife Anita Chamberlain Bounds, his sister Dorothea Bounds Long, and several nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews. A service in his memory will be held at 1:00 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church in Fairhope, Alabama.

An Exhibit: Early Statutory Compilations and Codes

• April 25th, 2018
• by specialcollections
• in Collections, Exhibits

The books presented in this post may seem to be nothing more than dusty old lawbooks, but they are in fact the mortal remains of Alabama’s frontier period. The energetic, mostly young men who made up Alabama’s legislatures faced the issues—national and local—of Jacksonian America. In response they spelled out their attitudes, self-interests, and startling biases for future generations to ponder. So in the adventurous spirit of that time, we invite our readers to read the signposts of what were once new ideas. We encourage you to visit our physical exhibit “Early Statutory Compilations and Codes” located in the main hall of UA’s Law Library.

Early Statutory Compilations and Codes

Occupying a parallel universe to Alabama’s case law, the state’s early statutory laws were diligently compiled every ten years. The legislature gave this task to highly regarded lawyers and judges who made every effort to produce volumes that would be intelligible to lawyers and lay persons. These compilers and codifiers kept in mind the frontier conditions prevailing over most of the state; they knew that these volumes were going to be packed in saddlebags and carried “on circuit.”

1823:  The state of Alabama’s first statutory compilation was assembled by Harry Toulmin, a long-tenured territorial judge who had previously published “digests” of legislation for Kentucky (1802) and the Mississippi Territory (1807). Toulmin’s 1823 Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama . . . is an important source of Mississippi legislation—relevant to early Alabama lawyers since Alabama had been, from 1798 to 1817, the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory. Arranged alphabetically, Toulmin’s Digest was the final masterpiece of a long life of service. Assisted by the distinguished attorney Henry Hitchcock, Toulmin worked confidently, subdividing statutes, adding historical notes, and omitting obsolete sections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1833:  John G. Aikin published the state’s first decennial digest in 1833. Aikin followed the same alphabetical arrangement as Toulmin, with helpful marginal notes and a copious index. In addition he provided an appendix containing the “Rules of Proceedings and Practice in the Courts.” The latter was needed, since in 1832 the legislature had created a three-judge Supreme Court, replacing the banc of circuit judges who had previously served as the state’s appellate tribunal. Aikin reissued his Digest with a supplement in 1836. Attorney and belletrist Alexander B. Meek published Meek’s Supplement in 1841, containing a militia code and important changes in chancery practice that had been adopted by the Supreme Court in January 1841.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1843:  Alabama’s second decennial compilation was published in 1843. Its author was Clement Comer Clay, one of the state’s most notable and controversial Jacksonian Democrats. Clay served as governor from 1835 to 1837; from 1837 to 1841 he was U.S. senator from Alabama. The result of his labors was strikingly similar to that employed by Aikin. Like Aikin he included court rules—in Clay’s case, rules for the Supreme Court, circuit courts, county courts, and chancery courts, as well as treatments of judicial procedures in common law and chancery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1852:  The 1840s witnessed a national discussion of codification, culminating in New York’s celebrated Field Code. In 1849 Governor Henry W. Collier proposed creation of an Alabama code commission. Lawmakers complied and a commission headed by Collier’s former colleague John J. Ormond set to work. In February 1852 the legislature adopted the code they had produced. The 1852 Code of Alabama was controversial because of the modifications its authors made in the state’s common law pleading. Yet their work provided the foundation for Alabama codes for many decades.