Leonard Augustus Jones

Background

Leonard Augustus was born on January 13, 1832 in Templeton, Massachussets, United States, the son of Augustus and Mary (Partridge) Jones. His family was established on American soil by Lewis Jones who was settled in Roxbury in 1640.

Education

In boyhood Leonard attended Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachussets, combining his school studies with work in his father's chair factory and on his farm. He received the degree of bachelor of arts at Harvard in 1855, having won in his senior year the Bowdoin first prize for a dissertation on "The Nature and Limitations of Instinct. " The following year he taught classics in the high school in St. Louis, Missouri.

After declining a position as tutor in Washington University, St. Louis, he entered the Harvard Law School in the fall of 1856, but after a year's attendance withdrew to pursue his studies in the office of C. W. Loring in Boston.

He reëntered the Law School in the spring term of 1858 and received the degree of LL. B. at the following Commencement.

Career

Jones was admitted to practice at the Suffolk bar on February 1, 1858. During this period he was awarded prizes for a dissertation on political economy, and a dissertation concerning property. In September 1858 he commenced the practice of law in Boston.

The next few years were apparently uneventful, not even the crisis of the Civil War marring the even tenor of his life. He was drafted for military service but procured a substitute. In 1866 he went into a law partnership with Edwin Hale Abbott, which John Lathrop later joined. In 1876 the firm was dissolved, Jones continuing practice alone. Two years later he commenced the publication of an exhaustive exposition of the law of securities, consisting of A Treatise on the Law of Mortgages of Real Property (1878), A Treatise on the Law of Mortgages on Personal Property (1881), each treatise containing references to the others. This task completed, he turned to the publication of a series of texts on certain aspects of real property, the first of which, A Treatise on the Law of Real Property as Applied between Vendor and Purchaser in Modern Conveyancing, appeared in 1896.

In addition Jones found time to compile Forms in Conveyancing (1886), expanded in later editions to include other forms; to publish An Index to Legal Periodical Literature (vol. I, 1888; II, 1899), covering Anglo-American legal journals of the period prior to 1899; and to contribute to magazines and law reviews, as well as to expand, revise, and reëdit his earlier treatises.

He was associate editor of the American Law Review from 1884 to 1904, and editor from 1904 to 1907; he edited American notes for 19-25 English Ruling Cases, and supervised the publication of Conrad Reno's Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England, for the Nineteenth Century (2 vols. , 1900 - 01). He rendered further service to the commonwealth from 1891 to 1902, as member from Massachusetts of the Commission on Uniform State Laws.

He died in 1909.

Achievements

• Leonard Augustus Jones was one of the most productive writers of his time, many of his works are still considered standard. They show a wide erudition and a thorough understanding of the practical problems of the law, and were intended not so much for the student as for the practising lawyer who is confronted with concrete problems, solutions to which must be found. Besides, Jones was elected the first judge of the court of land registration of Massachusetts. This function he performed faithfully and well until illness compelled him to resign.

Works

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  • A treatise on the law of railroad and other corporate securities

    (This book, "A treatise on the law of railroad and other c...)

  • A Treatise on the Law of Pledges : Including Collateral Securities

    (High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Jones, Leonard A. (L...)

  • **REPRINT** A treatise on the law of corporate bonds and mortgages

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• As recently as 1930 the eighth edition of his Forms appeared, of which the preface states, "Few, if any, law books have been more widely used and generally approved than the successive editions of Jones Legal Forms. "

Connections

Jones married Josephine (Lee) Jones on December 14, 1867.

Father:

Augustus Jones

Mother:

Mary (Partridge) Jones

Spouse:

Josephine (Lee) Jones

coworker:

Edwin Hale Abbott