Page 14 - Delaware Lawyer -Spring 2021

FEATURE | PRACTICING LAW IN A NEW NATION
property of John Wallace Houston, a Sussex County native who grew up in Concord, near Seaford. He graduated from Yale, where he was an early ini- tiate of the select secret society Skull and Bones. Houston studied law with a prominent Delawarean, John M. Clayton, who was Secretary of State in the administration of President Zach- ary Taylor. Houston later served in the United States Congress. He was Asso- ciate Judge of the Superior Court in Kent County for 38 years.12
It is likely that by the time Houston acquired Cooper’s library, many of the volumes were obsolete in the rapidly changing and burgeoning commercial practice of mid-19th century America. But Houston, a man intensely inter- ested in Delaware history — he was an initial board member of the Delaware Historical Society — may have been in- terested in the books for their historical value, or even for their handsome leath- er bindings and aura of legal learning, which must have looked impressive in his law office and judicial chambers.13
Houston in turn bequeathed the books to his nephew, Robert G. Hous- ton, who practiced law for many years from his office on Strawberry Alley in Georgetown where the books were displayed. Like his uncle, Houston served as Delaware’s representative in Congress.14 It was his daughter, Mary Houston Robinson, who, after Hous- ton’s death, placed the books in the Robinson home, known as The Judges, in Georgetown, where they remain today.
While Wilson, Cooper and Hous- ton are the predominant names ap- pearing in the books, other signatures of early Delawareans also appear. One of the oldest books bears the name of Simon Kollock and the date 1772. This was probably the Simon Kollock who, although not known to be ad- mitted to practice as a lawyer, served as a Justice of the Peace and High
The early case reports were not in standard form, appeared sporadically, and, of course, varied with the talents and interests of the reporting lawyers. The practice was for an individual lawyer to attend court, make notes of the cases argued and the court’s decisions, and then write a report on the cases in a more formal fashion.
Sheriff of Sussex County.15 There are also several books that belonged to Peter Robinson, the associate judge in Sussex from 1832 to 1836. Robin- son built the home that now houses the law books, as well as the adjoining law office. Other books are inscribed with the name of Edward Wootten, Robinson’s son-in-law, who was as- sociate judge in Sussex for more than 40 years. The name of Robert Clarke also appears in one set of books. This is probably the Robert Clarke who be- gan practicing in 1789 and was based in Dover, where he served on the com- mission that oversaw the construction of the Delaware State House and the Kent County Courthouse.
The Books
The nature of the collection is not unfamiliar to today’s lawyers — or at least those who can recall the days be- fore the advent of WestLaw and Lexis/ Nexis. The great bulk of materials are reports of court decisions. But there is also an early multi-volume encyclope- dic treatment of the law (think Corpus Juris or American Jurisprudence). And there are treatises on various areas of the law. For the practicing attor- ney, there is an extensive collection of handy practical guides.
Case Reports:
Then, as now, case reports con- stituted a major focus of any law re- search facility. These accounts of actu-
al cases brought, argued and decided in the courts are crucial to the legal systems of Britain and America, with their heavy reliance on precedent and stare decisis. Accordingly, the ready availability of decisions is a necessity. While it has probably always been the practice of lawyers to keep their own notes of significant court decisions, printed collections of decisions began to appear in the 1600s, reflecting the spread of the printing press.
The early case reports were not in standard form, appeared sporadically, and, of course, varied with the talents and interests of the reporting lawyers. The practice was for an individual law- yer to attend court, make notes of the cases argued and the court’s decisions, and then write a report on the cases in a more formal fashion. The lawyer attempted to get other lawyers to sub- scribe to and receive copies of his ac- counts. When he had collected a suf- ficient number of reports, the lawyer would have his work published and sold to other members of the bar. The cost of printing was underwritten by the lawyer. The frequent delay between a decision and publication was highly in- convenient to practitioners. As Charles Durnford and Alexander East put it in their preface to their first collection of reports from Kings Bench: their inten- tion was “to remedy the inconvenience felt by every part of the profession of waiting two or three years, till some
12 DELAWARE LAWYER SPRING 2021