Lectures of Thomas Bever

The collection consists of volumes of lectures on jurisprudence and civil law, by Thomas Bever, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1772-1774.

Thomas Bever was born in Mortimer, Berkshire, in 1725. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and graduated with a B.A. in 1748. He then became a Fellow of All Souls College and graduated as Bachelor of Law in 1753 and Doctor of Law in 1758. Bever was then admitted to Doctors' Commons in November 1758 and was later promoted Judge of the Cinque Ports and Chancellor of Lincoln and Bangor (Doctors' Commons, located at Paternoster Row, London, until 1858, was similar to the Inns of Court where English common law, rather than civil law, was taught. Members of the Doctors' Commons were those who held degrees either of doctor of civil law at Oxford or doctor of law at Cambridge and who had been admitted as advocates).

In 1766, Bever publishedA discourse on the study of jurisprudence, and on the civil law, being an introduction to a course of lectures, and thenThe history of the legal polity of the Roman state; and of the rise, progress, and extent of the Roman laws(1781). Thomas Bever died in London on 8 November 1791.

Generally open for consultation to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

Important finding aids generally are: the alphabetical Index to Manuscripts held at Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives, consisting of typed slips in sheaf binders and to which additions were made until 1987; and the Index to Accessions Since 1987.