EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER: OR, A SUMMARY OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND, IN A NEW AND INSTRUCTIVE METHOD, UNDER THE FOLLOWING HEADS...ALL OF THEM SO PLAINLY TREATED OF, THAT ALL MANNER OF PERSONS MAY BE PARTICULARLY AQUAINTED [!] WITH OUR LAWS AND STATUTES, CONCERNING CIVIL AND CRIMINAL AFFAIRS, AND KNOW HOW TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AND THEIR ESTATES AND FORTUNES, IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER.
New York: Hugh Gaine, 1768. pp iv, 289, [13] [as issued]. Boards detached. Old rubberstamp on front free endpaper and title page. Scattered foxing, one leaf tape-repaired [no loss]. Good.
This first American edition, from the seventh London edition, is considered the first layman's self-help law guide printed in America. Jacob calls his book "an instructive treatise, writ in the easiest method, and adapted to every capacity, whereby the unskilful, and those who are ignorant in the practice of the law, may in some measure be their own advisers, and readily avoid the common errors too often happening in the prosecution of suits." It "has been revised and corrected, and many valuable additions inserted."
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Evans 10935. I Harv. Law Cat. 1035. Marke 248. Marvin 300 [8th London, 1787]. Item #32180
Price: $350.00