A treatise upon some of the general principles of the law: whether of a legal, or of an equitable na
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
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William Wait was an American lawyer and writer on law.
Background
William Wait was born at Ephratah, New York, the son of William and Polly (Vail) Wait, both members of the Society of Friends. After the death of his father in 1825, he was reared at the home of his mother's parents at Vail Mills, near Broadalbin, N. Y.
Education
He was educated at the district school and apprenticed to a local shoemaker. He began the study of law while engaged in his trade, by which he supported his mother and three sisters, but finally finished his legal education in the office of Daniel Cady, who had become interested in him.
Career
In 1846 he was admitted to the bar and in 1848 was elected prosecuting attorney of Fulton County, N. Y. A subsequent fifteen years of practice in Johnstown, the county seat of Fulton County, failed to earn for him more than a local reputation as a lawyer of average ability. In 1865, however, after several years of arduous labor, he published in two large volumes his first treatise, The Law and Practice in Civil Actions. Written to discharge what Blackstone had termed a lawyer's duty to his profession, this work on practice, pleading, and evidence in civil actions and proceedings brought in the lower New York courts became a vade mecum for the local magistrates and legal practitioners. Code procedure in New York was then in a confused stage of transition from the common-law forms, and a well-indexed manual on actions and defenses with practical forms and precedents was gratefully received by the legal profession. By this treatise, which was subsequently expanded and passed through eight editions, Wait's reputation was made. He abandoned active practice and zealously devoted himself to his legal writings. His topical Digest of New York Reports, though not a great work, was extremely useful to contemporary lawyers, especially those who lacked access to original reports. His next publication, The Code of Civil Procedure of the State of New York (1870), which embodied recent statutory provisions, was republished five times between 1871 and 1877. In 1872 he produced one of the earliest manuals for quick search, A Table of Cases Affirmed, Reversed, or Cited, for the state of New York. Its usefulness in saving lawyers many hours of search and in enabling them to avoid the citation of decisions subsequently reversed or restricted was instantly acclaimed. A contemporary's assertion that "every State in the Union ought to have a similar work executed" has found fruition in Shepard's Citations, a growing refinement and elaboration on Wait's first effort in this field. About the same time Wait prepared a thorough and reliable work on New York practice, The Practice at Law, in Equity, and in Special Proceedings in All the Courts of Record in the State of New York . Revised by later writers to include subsequent statutes and decisions, Wait's Practice at Law continues to be a standard authority on New York adjective law. It was followed in 1875 by his edition of Herbert Broom's Commentaries on the Laws of England, a work based largely on Blackstone's Commentaries. Wait's last important work was A Treatise upon Some of the General Principles of the Law . Including . Actions and Defenses, a topical digest of the general principles of law. Beginning with such topics as "Actions" and "Agency" and continuing through "Wills, " every legal subject was concisely digested. Each point represented the actual holding of an American or English decision. These volumes were in reality a corpus juris for lawyers and students of that day. The painstaking care with which he conducted his legal research resulted in overwork and physical exhaustion, and after an illness of only a few months he died of consumption at his home in Johnstown.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
Connections
In 1850 he married Margaret E. Stewart, by whom he had one daughter. In 1858 he married Caroline Van Alen of Kinderhook, N. Y. They had three daughters and two sons.