Penn, William:

$8,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE PEOPLES ANCIENT AND JUST LIBERTIES ASSERTED, IN THE TRYAL OF WILLIAM PENN, AND WILLIAM MEAD, AT THE SESSIONS HELD AT THE OLD-BAILY IN LONDON.... [bound with:] THE SECOND PART OF THE PEOPLES ... An important work reporting the events of the trial of William Penn, comprised of the rare first state of the first edition of the first part and the only 17th- or 18th-century edition of the second part. ESTC asserts that the two parts were "probably intended" to be issued together, although they usually appear separately.Protecting its established Church, England prohibited Quaker religious meetings. In 1670, William Penn held a service on Gracechurch Street in London. Penn and fellow Quaker William Mead were arrested for unlawful assembly and disturbing the King's peace, and brought to trial. The bench attempted to intimidate Penn a`nd Mead during the trial, and then tried to do the same with the jurors, who ultimately decided in favor of the defendants. The jury disobeyed the judge's several orders to find the defendants guilty, and after issuing threats, the judge locked up the jury for a time. "The stirring call of Penn to his jury whom the judges were trying to coerce, 'Ye are Englishmen, mind your privilege: give not away your right,' and their reply 'Nor will we ever do it' is one of the most dramatic incidents in Anglo-American legal history" - Marke. The case, with the jurors' successful writ of habeas corpus, vindicated the power of juries to override instructions of th

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