Manuscript docket book kept by Barzillai Slosson, perhaps in Kent, Connecticut, from September 1794 to March 1808, regarding court cases in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The content includes brief abstracts of proceedings, names of plaintiffs and defendants, a table of fees, and miscellaneous accounts
Alternative Title:
Barzillai Slosson's docket for C.C. & S.C. September 1794 and Barzillai Slosson docket book : Litchfield County Court
Description:
Handwritten in ink., Title taken from the label on the box., Yale Law Library's label inside the clamshell box: "Presented by Hellen Bull, 1935.", Also available in original print http://morris.law.yale.edu/record=b257544~S3, Digital reproduction. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale Law Library, MssA Sl55 no.5, In English. , Description based on print version record., Hicks classification: MssA Sl55 no.5., and Barzillai Slosson (1769-1813), a Yale College graduate of 1791, was an attorney from Kent, Connecticut, who also served as a clerk for the Connecticut House of Representatives.
Publisher:
Barzillai Slosson
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, Litchfield County., Accounting., New Haven., and Litchfield County (Conn.)
Subject (Topic):
Court records, Practice of law, Lawyers, Fees, Manuscripts, American, and History
This manuscript, a unique specimen of dramatic composition by Queen Elizabeth, represents the only surviving piece of stage property from the Elizabethan theater. It was passed from player to player during the great Theobalds Entertainment of 1591, and it is the only surviving original manuscript of any part of that Entertainment., Elizabeth was entertained by her Lord High Treasurer, Lord Burghley, at his Hertfordshire house, Theobalds, between 10 and 20 May 1591. In a contemporary manuscript text of the entertainments at Theobalds (British Library, Egerton MS. 2623), there is preserved a fanciful speech by a "Hermit," delivered to the Queen on Burghley's behalf, in which, pleading for royal permission to retire from public life, he requests her to restore to him his "cell," namely, Theobalds. The present document was prepared as an answer to Burghley's request and grants the "Hermit," her "woorthely belooved Coounceloour," the right to retire to his "cave," his "own houus," with "full & pacifik possession of all & every part thearof," and to be henceforth free from public duties if he so wishes., The text of the "charter" was printed in John Strype's Annals of the Reformation (1709), where it is described as having been "drawn up by the queen herself in a facetious style, to cheer the said treasurer." A highly characteristic example of Elizabethan wit, it has the form of a formal charter, certified and signed by Lord Chancellor Hatton, who is known to have taken part in a number of court entertainments. It bears the Great Seal and was no doubt read out and presented to Burghley, or to an actor representing him as a hermit. Instead of giving a simple answer to Burghley's request to retire from public life, Elizabeth evidently chose to enter into the spirit of the Hermit's request and frame her reply accordingly having this charter drawn up by one of her chancery scribes and passed by Hatton under the Great Seal, as part of a prearranged performance for the amusement of the court on the first day of her visit to Theobalds., The entertainment at Theobalds are described by E.K. Chambers in The Elizabethan Stage (II:247-248), Sir Walter Greg in the Review of English Studies (I[1924]:452-454), John Payne Collier in his History of English Dramatic Poetry (I:276), Alexander Dyce in The Works of George Peele (III:161-169), and John Nichols in his account of The Progress and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (III:74)., and Purchased 1985.
