The Reports of Sir Peyton Ventris Kt. Late One of the Justices of the Common Pleas. In Two Parts. Containing Select Cases Adjudged in the King's Bench, In the Reign of K. Charles II..

In the Savoy [London]: Printed by J. Nutt, assignee of Edward Sayer Esq. for D. Browne ; O. Lloyd ; W. Mears, and J. Browne ; T. Woodward, and T. Hook, 1716. Hardcover. Very good. Third impression, carefully corrected, with an addition of several thousands of References, never before printed." Title continues "With Three Learned Arguments, One in the King's Bench, by Sir Francis North, when Attorney-General; and Two in the Exchequer, by Sir Matthew Hale, When Lord Chief Baron. With Two Tables; One of the Cases, the other of the Principal Matters. The Second Part. Containing Choice Cases Adjudged in the Common Pleas, In the Reigns of K. Charles II. and K. James II. and in the Three first Years of the Reign of their Late Majesties K. William and Q. Mary; While he was a Judge in the Said Court: With the Pleadings to the Same. Also Several Cases and Pleadings thereupon in the Exchequer-Chamber, upon Writs of Error from the King's Bench. Together With Many Remarkable and Curious Cases in the Court of Chancery. Whereunto are Added Three Exact Tables; One of the Cases, the Other of the Principal Matters, and the third of the Pleadings. With the Allowance and Approbation of the Lord Keeper and all the Judges." Two folio volumes, the first with a frontis portrait of Ventris and additional title page. Contemporary full calf binding, red spine labels, six raised bands. Moderate general wear to boards, bindings sound; some old staining to preliminary blanks, offsetting from frontis to first title page of Vol. I; text clean, with only minor scattered foxing. Provenance: Note on each front pastedown indicating purchase of the set by Edmund Quincy in 1726; signature of Benjamin Beale dated 1795 on each title page (Quincy's name has been crossed out above); small private library label "2206" and "2207" on each front endpaper. ESTC T97362. Ventris (1645-1691) was a judge and politician. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, early in his career he "enjoyed little success as a pleader" but "having begun noting cases while a student, he turned to reporting for his livelihood. The result was two volumes of reports, principally of arguments in king's bench and common pleas, published posthumously in 1696 and in many editions thereafter owing to their reputation for clarity, comprehensiveness, and accuracy....[These] Reports endure as among the most important written during the Restoration.