Tarlton Law Library
Jamail Center for Legal Research

Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne, Sir, 1762-1841.

Tomlins's Law-Dictionary : English Law

Tomlins had published editions of Giles Jacob's dictionary in 1797 and 1809, including significant additions and corrections, so when he finally published his own dictionary in 1810, it closely resembled Jacob's. Tomlins saw the need for a new edition because he wanted to reference the vast numbers of "Statutes at Large, ever increasing Series of Term Reports in the several Courts, as also Treatises on separate branches of the Law, Reports from both Houses of Parliament, and many other authentic Resources" that had been published in a decade.

Unfortunately, this painstaking comprehensiveness made his two-volume dictionary appear inelegant and ungainly. Tomlins had included too much information for easy, quick reference. According to Marvin, the work was "prepared with skill and accuracy," but it seemed old-fashioned and clumsy almost as soon as it was published. Since more and more treatises were being published dealing with each separate branch of the law, there was "less need than formerly of extended disquisitions, such as are devoted to certain Titles in Mr. Tomlins' volumes" (Marvin, p. 693). It was a standard work for a few brief decades in the early nineteenth century, but was surpassed in England by the Law Lexicon of J. J. S. Wharton, first published in 1848, and in America by Bouvier's Law Dictionary.

See John G. Marvin, Legal Bibliography, or a Thesaurus of American, English, Irish, and Scotch Law Books (Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson, 1847).

Bibliography

1. THE LAW DICTIONARY : defining and interpreting the terms or words of art, and explaining the rise, progress, and present state of the English law : abstracted from the last quarto edition. Octavo ed. London : Printed by C. and R. Baldwin, for R. Baldwin, R. Faulder [and 23 others], 1810. CALL # KD 313 T65 1810
   
   
2. THE LAW-DICTIONARY : explaining the rise, progress, and present state of the British law. 3rd ed. / with considerable additions. London : Printed for Payne and Foss ... [et al.], 1820. 2 vols. CALL # KD 313 T65 1820
   
   
3. THE LAW-DICTIONARY : explaining the rise, progress, and present state of the British law. 4th ed. London : Printed for J. & W.T. Clarke ... [et al.], 1835. 2 vols. CALL # KD 313 T65 1835 [2 copies] (Copy 2: gift of Joseph D. Jamail, UT Law 1953)
   
   

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