Forms of Precedents, For the Use of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs..

1818. Nashville: Printed and Sold by T.G. Bradford, 1818. Nashville: Printed and Sold by T.G. Bradford, 1818. Scarce Early Tennessee Formbook from a Pioneer Nashville Press [Tennessee]. Forms of Precedents, For the Use of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, And Constables, In the State of Tennessee; And a Complete Practical Conveyancer; Containing the Most Useful and Necessary Precedents in Conveyancing, With the Forms of Almost Every Useful Instrument of Writing. Nashville: Printed and Sold by T.G. Bradford, 1818. 153, [8] pp. Octavo (6-1/2" x 4"). Recent period-style quarter imitation calf over cloth, spine lettered in gilt, renewed endpapers. Text block moderately browned as typical for Tennessee imprints of this era; light rubbing to extremities. Early ownership signatures and occasional contemporary annotations to endleaves, interior otherwise clean and well-preserved. A very good, sturdy copy of a rare frontier legal manual. $650. * This rare 1818 manual is a foundational document of the Tennessee legal system, published during a period when Nashville was the epicenter of the American "Old Southwest." First appearing in 1816, this second edition provided the essential procedural vocabulary for a state still defining its civil infrastructure. Because frontier Justices of the Peace were frequently laypeople rather than trained attorneys, Bradford's Forms functioned as the practical "law of the land," standardizing everything from the pursuit of felons to the complex transfer of land titles through its "Complete Practical Conveyancer." The volume is a significant specimen from the press of Thomas G. Bradford, a pioneer of the Trans-Appalachian book trade. Bradford was the nephew of John Bradford (the first printer in Kentucky) and took over Nashville's The Clarion in 1808. His imprints are highly prized by collectors of Southern Americana; as one of the few printers in the region, Bradford was instrumental in disseminating the statutes and legal forms that brought a semblance of order to the Tennessee wilderness. This work is remarkably scarce. OCLC WorldCat locates only one copy of the 1816 first edition (Library of Congress) and only one copy of this 1818 second edition (Harvard Law School). Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 8146.