argrave of Chancery Lane. He entered as a
student at Lincoln's Inn in 1760, and in 1772 he greatly distinguished
himself in the Habeas Corpus case of James Sommersett, a negro. Soon
afterwards he was appointed one of the king's counsel, and in 1797 he
was made Recorder of Liverpool. He was also for many years Treasurer of
Lincoln's Inn. In 1813, in consequence of the impaired state of
Hargrave's health, his wife petitioned Parliament to purchase the fine
law library which he had amassed, consisting of a considerable number of
printed books and about five hundred manuscripts; and on the
recommendation of a Committee of the House of Commons the collection was
acquired by the Government for the sum of eight thousand pounds, and
deposited in the British Museum. Edwards, in his _Lives of the Founders
of the British Museum_, says that 'the peculiar importance of the
Hargrave Collection consisted in its manuscripts and its annotated
printed books. The former were about five hundred in number, and were
works of great juridical weight and authority, not merely the
curiosities of black-letter law. Their collector was the most eminent
parliamentary lawyer of his day, but his devotion to the science of law
had, to some degree, impeded his enjoyment of its sweets. During some of
the best years of his life he had been more intent on increasing his
legal lore than on swelling his legal profits. And thus the same
legislative act which enriched the Museum Library, in both of its
departments, helped to smooth the declining years of a man who had won
uncommon distinction in his special pursuit.' A catalogue of the
manuscripts was compiled by Sir Henry Ellis, and published in 1818.
Hargrave, among other important legal works, published a new edition of
_State Trials from the eleventh year of Richard II. to the sixteenth of
George III._, in eleven volumes folio, in 1776-81; _Juridical Arguments
and Collections_, in two volumes, in 1797-99; and _Jurisconsult
Exercitations_, in three volumes, in 1811-13. He died on the 16th of
August 1821, and was buried in Lincoln's Inn Chapel. Lord Lyndhurst, in
speaking of Hargrave's great legal knowledge, declared that 'no man ever
lived who was more conversant with the law of his country.'

ISAAC REED, 1742-1807

Isaac Reed, the editor of Shakespeare, was born in London on the 1st of
January 1742. He was a conveyancer, and had chambers, first in Gray's
Inn and afterwards in Staple Inn, where he