MERITON, George. An Exact Abridgment of all the Publick Printed Irish Statutes now in force : from the Third Year of the Reign of King Edward the Second, to the end of the last Session of Parliament, in the Tenth Year of his Present Majesty’s Reign King William the Third.

Methodized and digested alphabetically, under apt and proper heads and titles. Together with an Abridgment of such English Statutes now in Force to this Present Time, as have been Enacted and Made since Sir Edward Poyning’s law, relating to the Kingdom of Ireland. Whereto several compleat tables are added, of great use, ease and service, to the reader. As also book cases and resolutions in law, &c. upon many of the said statutes interested in the margents. By G. Meriton, Esq; Barrister at Law. Dublin: Printed by and for Andrew Crook, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, on the Blind-Key, for Matthew Gunne at the Bible in Essex-Street and Eliphal Dobson at the Stationers-Arms in Castle-Street, 1700. Small thick octavo. pp. [64], 702, [198]. Half-title with engraved woodcut royal arms of William III and the motto “Je me tiendrai” beneath the crowned lion and unicorn. Contemporary Irish panelled calf, blind-tooled with tulip corner-pieces and scalloped inner panel. All edges sprinkled. Some light surface wear to extremities; joints a little rubbed. A clean, well-preserved copy in its original state.
Sweeney 2522. Wing M 1789.
The compiler, who hailed from Yorkshire, became a doctor of laws in Dublin in the year of publication. The work provides a systematic abridgment of all statutes then in force from the reign of Edward II to William III, alphabetically arranged and cross-referenced for use by lawyers, justices, and officials throughout the kingdom. The companion text, An Abridgment of the Act of Parliament for the Better Execution of His Majesty’s Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of Ireland, by the same author, is bound with it, bearing a separate title-page dated 1701. Both works are by George Meriton, barrister-at-law, who sought to codify and clarify the often contradictory Irish legislative corpus after the upheavals of the seventeenth century.
A handsome contemporary binding of this early Irish legal digest, Approval for printing signed by the Judges of Ireland, including Jo. Methuen, Ri. Pyne, Jn. Hely, Rob. Doyne, Rich. Cox, Hen. Echlin, Jn. Jefferyson, Tho. Coote, N. Donnellan, and R. Tracy. The distinctive Irish binding style of the period 1690-1710, often associated with the Dublin trade around Andrew Crook’s press on the Blind-Key.
This Dublin edition of Meriton’s Abridgment is one of the earliest attempts at a comprehensive codification of Irish statutory law, bridging the medieval and post-Restoration eras. Its Dublin imprint under Crook places it within the milieu of the first organised Irish legal press, which served Parliament, the courts, and the new Protestant administration after the Williamite settlement.
George Meriton (1634-1711), legal and miscellaneous writer who inherited the paternal estate at Castle Leavington, Yorkshire, in 1652, studied law, and became an attorney or ‘practiser of the common law’ at Northallerton in Yorkshire. On the title-page of his Abridgment of the Irish Statutes he is described as barrister-at-law, but his name cannot be found in the books of the Inns of Court of London or Dublin. After 1684 he left England and went to Ireland, and in the autumn of 1700 had the degree of LL.B. conferred upon him by the university of Dublin. He died in Dublin in 1711.

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