Patrick Henry's Law Books

The Museum owns five early 18th-century English law books that are listed in Patrick Henry’s 1799 estate inventory. Three volumes still bear Henry’s printed bookplate. Several were owned by other prominent Virginians before Henry acquired them, presumably in the early 1760s when he was studying and practicing law. One of these previous owners was Bartholomew Dandridge, whose older sister Martha Dandridge (Custis) married George Washington in January 1759. These rare volumes were acquired by the Valley Forge Historical Society, the Museum of the American Revolution’s predecessor organization, in 1910 at a sale of Henry family heirlooms in Philadelphia.

Object Details

• Modern Reports, Being a Collection of Several Special Cases in the Court of King’s Bench
  Printed by the Assigns of Richard and Edward Atkins
  London, England
  1700
  Leather, Paper, Ink
  Museum of the American Revolution
  2003.00.0984