Two Sections Removed From an Indenture, One Signed by Blackstone and. Manuscript; Blackstone, Sir William; Grey, William Antiquarian & Scholarly

Huntingdonshire, June 26, 1776. Blackstone at Work [Manuscript]. Blackstone, Sir William [1723-1780]. Grey, Thomas de, 1st Baron Walsingham [1719-1781]. [Two Sections Removed from an Indenture, One of Them Signed by Blackstone and de Grey, Huntingdonshire, June 16, 1776]. Part-printed vellum, text completed in manuscript, approximately 13" x 2" (33 x 6 cm) and 11-1/2 x 3" (29 x 7.5 cm), affixed with straight pin along left-hand margin, which is reinforced with paper mounting tape. Negligible light soiling, a few minor creases. Signatures, both in large bold hands, accompanied by mostly intact wax seals. $1,500. * The first section, from the head of the indenture, reads: "Huntingdonshire, ss, Sir William de Grey Knight Chief Justice of our Lord the King of the Bench and Sir William Blackstone Knight One of the Justices of our said Lord the King of the Bench." The second reads: "seats at Westminster this twenty sixth Day of June in the Sixteenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third now King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith &c. And in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand, seven Hundred and Seventy Six/ Wm. de Grey [seal] W Blackstone [seal]. Blackstone signed this document as a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, a post he held from 1770 to 1780. Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham, a barrister, judge and politician, was Lord Chief Justice of that court from 1771 to 1780. Grey is best remembered as the prosecutor who failed to secure the conviction of Henry Sampson Woodfall for the publication of the Letters of Junius.