THE COMMENTARIES, OR Reports OF EDMUND PLOWDEN, OF THE MIDDLE-TEMPLE, ESQ. AN APPRENTICE OF THE COMMON LAW: CONTAINING DIVERS CASES UPON MATTERS OF LAW, ARGUED AND ADJUDGED IN THE SEVERAL REIGNS OF KING EDWARD VI. QUEEN MARY, KING AND QUEEN PHILIP AND MARY, AND QUEEN ELIZABETH. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE QUERIES OF MR. PLOWDEN. IN TWO PARTS. PART I. LONDON: PRINTED BY S. BROOKE, paternoster-row. THE PREFACE OF MR. PLOWDEN. EDMUND PLOWDEN, to the Students of the Common Law of England, and especially to his Companions of the Middle-Temple, wisheth encrease of Learning. WHEN I first entered upon the Study of the Law, (which was in the twentieth Year of my Age, and in the thirtieth Year of the Reign of the late King Henry the Eighth of famous Memory) I resolved upon two Things, which I then purposed earnestly to pursue. The first was, to be present at, and to give diligent Attention to, the Debates of Questions in Law, and particularly to the Arguments of those who were Men of the greatest Note and Reputation for Learning. The second was, to commit to Writing what I heard, and the Judgment thereupon, which seemed to me to be much better than to rely upon treacherous Memory which often deceives its Master. These two Resolutions I pursued effectually by a constant Attendance at Moots and Lectures, and at all Places in Court and Chancery, to which I might have Access, where Matters of Law were argued and debated. And finding that I reaped much Profit and Instruction by this Practice, I became at last disposed to report the Arguments and Judgments made and given in the King's Courts upon Demurrers in Law, as abounding more copiously with Matter of Improvement, and being more capable of perfecting the Judgment, than Arguments on other Occasions. Upon this I undertook first one Case and then another, by which Means I at last collected a good Volume. And this Work I originally entered upon with a View to my own private Instruction only, without the least Thought or Intention of letting it appear in Print. But when upon the Solicitation of some of the Judges and other grave and learned Men, I had suffered a 2 |