– THE LAW OF CONTRACT 1670 1870 The foundations for modern contract law were laid between 1670 and 1870.Ratherthanadvancingapurelychronologicalaccount,thisexami- nation of the development of contract law doctrine in England during thattimeexploreskeythemesinordertobetterunderstandthedriversof legalchange.Thesethemesincludetherelationshipbetweenlawyersand merchants,theroleofequity,theplaceofstatute,andthepartplayedby legalliterature.Developmentsareconsideredinthecontextofthelegal systemofthetimeandthroughthosewhowereinvolvedinlitigationas lawyers, judges, jurors or litigants. It concludes that the way in which contractlawdevelopedwascomplex.Legalchangewasoftenunevenand slow, and some of the apparent changes had deep roots in the past. Clashes between conservative and more reformist tendencies were not uncommon. warren swain is an Associate Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law,UniversityofQueensland,Australia. cambridge studies in english legal history Editedby J.H.Baker FellowofStCatharine’sCollege,Cambridge Recentseriestitlesinclude TheLawofContract1670–1870 Warren Swain AHistoryofEnglishTortLaw1900–1950 Paul Mitchell SirEdwardCokeandtheReformationoftheLaws Religion,PoliticsandJurisprudence,1578–1616 David Chan Smith MedievalEnglishConveyances John M. Kaye MarriageLawandPracticesintheLongEighteenthCentury AReassessment Rebecca Probert TheRiseandFalloftheEnglishEcclesiasticalCourts,1500–1860 R.B. Outhwaite LawCourtsandLawyersintheCityofLondon,1300–1550 Penny Tucker LegalFoundationsofTribunalsinNineteenthCenturyEngland Chantal Stebbings PettyfoggersandVipersoftheCommonwealth The‘LowerBranch’oftheLegalProfessionInEarlyModernEngland C.W. Brooks RomanCanonLawinReformationEngland R.H. Helmholz,Sir Henry Maine AStudyinVictorianJurisprudence R.C.J. Cocks,Sir William Scott,Lord Stowell JudgeoftheHighCourtofAdmiralty,1798–1828 Henry J. Bourguignon TheEarlyHistoryoftheLawofBillsandNotes AStudyoftheOriginsofAnglo-AmericanCommercialLaw James Steven Rogers TheLawofTreasoninEnglandintheLaterMiddleAges J.G. Bellamy WilliamSheppard,Cromwell’sLawReformer Nancy L. Matthews THE LAW OF CONTRACT – 1670 1870 WARREN SWAIN UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107040762 ©WarrenSwain2015 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2015 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Swain,Warren,1973–author. Thelawofcontract,1670–1870/WarrenSwain. pages cm.–(Cambridgestudiesinenglishlegalhistory) ISBN978-1-107-04076-2(hardback) 1. Contracts–England–History. I. Title. KD1554.S93 2015 346.4202020903–dc23 2014043957 ISBN978-1-107-04076-2Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. CONTENTS Acknowledgments pagevi Tableofcases viii Tableofstatutes xxviii 1 Introduction 1 2 Thelegalsystemandthelawofcontract 11 3 LawyersandmerchantsI 42 4 LawyersandmerchantsII 75 5 EquityandtheCommonlaw 107 6 LordMansfieldandhissuccessors 127 7 Equityandtheregulationofunfairnessincontracting:theusury lawsasacasestudy 153 8 Theclassicalmodelofcontract:theproductofarevolutionin legalthought? 172 9 Classicalcontractlawanditslimits 201 10 Contractlaw,illegalityandpublicpolicy 231 11 Contractlawandstatutelaw 250 12 Thelawofcontract:stabilityandchange 274 Bibliography 283 Index 322 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ItwasW.H.Audenwhowrotethat,‘Inheadachesandinworryvaguely lifeleaksaway’.Thisisallthemoretruewhenwritingabook.Thisbook originated in an Oxford D.Phil, Aspects of the Action of Assumpsit 1750–1855(2003),onlyafractionofwhichhassurvivedintothecurrent work. I should like to thank the examiners of that thesis, Professor Thomas Watkin and Professor John Cartwright, for their helpful com- mentsandadvice.Igratefullyacknowledgethehelpandwisecounselof mysupervisorandfriend,ProfessorDavidIbbetson.Ishouldalsoliketo thank two people who first kindled my interest in law and legal history respectively. The first, the late Roy Stuart, is rightly remembered with great fondness by generations of Hertford undergraduates. I only hope that I have pinned down the issues with sufficient clarity. The second, Jeffrey Hackney, encouraged my first faltering steps in legal history. I oweDavid,RoyandJeffreyahugeintellectualdebt. Thisbookhastakenalongtimetowrite,duringwhichIhavebeena member of the law faculties at Oxford, Birmingham and Durham universities as well as the University of Queensland. Various friends have kept me going. It would be remiss not to mention Kenny, Jennean, Mick ‘The Hat’ and Jean, Tom, Paul, Tony and the late Julian Walters from theearlyyears. InBirminghamI should liketo thankmy friendswhotooklunchonthebottomfloorofstaffhouseandcouldstill remember a time when universities were fun places to work. Of my colleagues in Durham it suffices to say, along with Virgil, ‘latet anguis inherba’.IwouldhoweverliketothanktheregularsinTheShakespeare forsomehappymemoriesfrommytimeinDurham.Duringthecrucial finalstagesmyfriendsinBrisbane,Graeme,KitandDominic,havebeen more help than they know. Dave Campbell and the late Brian Simpson both provided encouragement and made helpful suggestions when the project was flagging. I should also like to thank my research assistant Joseph Clowes, whose role went way beyond proof reading, for his friendship and wisdom beyond his years. At various points my family vi acknowledgments vii hasprovidedfinancialsupport.MyfatherismymostloyalreaderandI hopethathewillfindsomethingheretoenjoy.Finallyandmostimpor- tantlyIshouldliketothankmyformerpartnerKarenFairweatherwho livedwiththisbookformanyyears.Itisto herthatitisdedicatedwith affection.Needlesstosayanyerrorsremainingaremyown. Someofthematerialusedinthisbookhasappearedindifferentforms as:‘The Changing Nature of the Doctrine of Consideration1750–1850’ (2005)26JournalofLegalHistory49–61;‘Mosesv.Macferlan(1760)’,in CharlesMitchellandPaulMitchell(eds.),LandmarkCasesintheLawof Restitution (Oxford: Hart, 2006), pp. 19–37; ‘Da Costa v. Jones (1778)’, inCharlesMitchellandPaulMitchell(eds.),LandmarkCasesintheLaw of Contract (Oxford: Hart, 2008), pp. 119–34; ‘The Classical Model of Contract:theProductofaRevolutioninLegalThought’(2010)30Legal Studies 513–32. I am grateful to John Wiley and Sons, Taylor and Francis, and Bloomsbury Publishing plc for permission to use this material. TABLE OF CASES Allesbrookv.Roach(1795)PeakeAddCas27 131 Ameryv.Rogers(1794)1Esp208 131 Andersonv.George(1757)1Burr352 108 Andersonv.Temple(1767)4Burr2235 108 Andrewsv.Herne(1661)1Lev33 239 Anon(1674)1Vent258 66 Anon(1680),Yale,Nottingham,Vol.II,p.868 164 Anon(1693)Skin327 86 Anon(1694)HoltKB115 56 Anon(1694)Comb243 102 Anon(1695)Comb341 73,119 Anon(1697)Comb446 73,119 Anon(1698)Holt296 58 Anon(1699)12Mod344 251 Anon(1700)12Mod345,HoltKB296 52 Anon(1701)12Mod439 104 Anon(1702)2Salk649 105 Anon(1704)6Mod242 105 Anon(1806)2Camp317(note) 143 Adamsv.Lindsell(1818)1B&Ald681 184,185 Allcardv.Skinner(1887)36ChD145 216 Allenv.Hearn(1785)1TR56 242 Applebyv.Dods(1807)8East300 138 Applebyv.Myers(1867)LR2CP651 126 Appletonv.Sweetapple(1782)3Doug137 28 Araminta,The(1854)1SpEcc&Ad224 218 Ardglassev.Muschamp(1684)1Vern237 165 Arrisv.Stukely(1677)2Mod260 73 Ashv.Ash(1696)Holt701 26 Astleyv.Reynolds(1731)2Stra915,2BarnKB40,HLSMS4055f.41,HLS MS1110f.120,LIMSMisc.98f.194,LIMSHill65f.41 71,72,252 viii