A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut. In Six Books by SWIFT, Zephaniah - 1795

Windham: John Byrne, 1795. First. hardcover. good. Folding table of lineal descents. Complete in two volumes. Thick 8vo, contemporary tree calf, leather spine labels, volume one moderately worn on spine, volume two moderately worn on ends of spine, volume one has edges of corners that are bumped and worn, volume two has edges of corners that are lightly worn and lightly bumped, moderate foxing to both volumes, mostly to margins, most pages slightly wavy in both volumes. Windham: Printed by John Byrne, for the Author, 1795, 1796. First Edition Author was an associate justice and later chief justice of the Connecticut Superior Court, from 1801 to 1819. Earlier in life, Swift graduated from Yale and studied to be a lawyer in Connecticut. This work is considered, "...the first American law text. It displayed a thoughtful philosophy of government as well as a thorough presentation of the constitutional and working government of the state..." Dictionary of American Biography, volume XVIII, page 250. Listed subscribers to this edition include President George Washington, John Adams, Oliver Wolcott, James Madison, Chancellor James Kent, Charles Lee, the United States attorney general, and James Wilson and James Iredel, both of whom were associate Justices of the Supreme Court. Each volume contains the early bookplate of William Belcher on a preliminary blank page. Also, his last name is stamped in gilt on the front cover of each volume. Internally, a tight, bright set.