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STATHAM CITATIONS IN VULGATE YEAR BOOKS

The margins of Statham normally contain for each entry a citation to the Year Books giving term, regnal year, and king. Statham also occasionally refers to a Year Book cases within the body of the text of an entry. We have prepared tables, hyperlinked below, listing those citations that we have found for cases dating from the reigns of Henry 4, Henry 5, and Henry 6. (Work is proceeding on those from earlier reigns; these present more challenges.) Each of the citations is then followed by a reference to the Vulgate edition of the Year Book, where the reference seems to correspond to the one that Statham abridges. Where we have not found the reference that fact is indicated. The order of the citations is by king, regnal year, and term. The terms are in chronological order. The regnal year of Henry 4 began with Michaelmas term, that of Henry 5 with Easter term, that of Henry 6 with Michaelmas term. Where Statham did not give the term, the reference follows the named terms under “anno.”

We have also prepared tables that are, by and large, the converse of what is given in the tables that arrange the citations by references that Statham gives showing where we have found (and not found) corresponding cases in the Vulgate Year Books. Here we arrange the citations by the order of the Vulgate Year Books and show where the corresponding entry is in Statham. This, obviously, excludes the cases where we have not been able to find a corresponding case in the Vulgate Year Books, so a table below the basic table lists, once more in Statham’s reference order, those cases. The notes give some indication of how far we have looked. We would appreciate learning of any references that our readers may find which we have missed. Just send us an email.

For the reigns of Henry 4 and Henry 5, approximately 28% of Statham’s abridgements have not been found to have corresponding cases in the Vulgate Year Books. In the case of Henry 6, the proportion rises to 45%.

It should not be asssumed that Statham’s citation is necessarily wrong if he gives a citation that does not correspond to that found for the abridged material in the Vulgate Year Book or if he gives a citation that cannot be found (or has not yet been found) in the Vulgate Year Books. A few of his citations are clearly wrong. There were no Year Books for the reign of Henry 2; Henry 4 did not have an 18th, 40th, or 41st regnal year, and Henry 6 did not have a 46th or 48th regnal year. Six of Statham’s citations to Henry 6 have been found in the corresponding year and term of Henry 4; one of Statham’s citations to Henry 4 has been found in the corresponding year and term of Henry 6, and one of Statham’s citations to Henry 5 has been found in the corresponding year (but not term) of Henry 6. We know, however, that the Vulgate Year Books are not themselves always accurate and that they do not contain everything that once was. Statham was much closer in time to a living tradition than were the printers of the seventeenth century. Much that is found in Statham that cannot be found in the Vulgate Year Books probably respresents genuine manuscript traditions of Statham’s time, which, in turn, may represent reports of cases from the years and terms that he cites. This is particularly true of the reign of Henry 6, in the latter part of which Statham was alive and working.

These tables are largely the work of Carol Lee and David Seipp, who began with the references in Margaret Center Klingelsmith’s (abbreviated ‘K.’) translation of Statham (1915). Seipp checked and updated the references, in some cases substituting for what K. had done. Where the reference is strikingly different from K.’s, it is marked ‘DJS’. Charles Donahue mucked about with the tables, and a few of his contributions are marked ‘CD’.


Statham’s Citations to Henry 4 and Henry 5 in the Order of Statham’s Citations
Statham’s Citations to Henry 4 and Henry 5 in the Order of the Vulgate Year Books
Statham’s Citations to Henry 4 and Henry 5 Not Found in the Vulgate Year Books Statham’s Citations to Henry 6 in the Order of Statham’s Citations
Statham’s Citations to Henry 6 in the Order of the Vulgate Year Books
Statham’s Citations to Henry 6 Not Found in the Vulgate Year Books


 

This page last updated 07/02/12. Contact Rosemary Spang with comments.
URL: http://amesfoundation.law.harvard.edu /digital/Statham/StathamMetadataStathamCites.html .
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