The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface
• A Table of British Regnal Years
• Select Essays In Anglo-american Legal History: Volume Iii History of Particular Topics, Continued
• Part V.: Commercial Law
• 47.: Thomas Edwar Scrutton, General Survey of the History of the Law Merchant 1
• 48.: Spencer Brodhurst, the Merchants of the Staple 1
• 49.: Francis Marion Burdick, Contributions of the Law Merchant to the Common Law 1
• 50.: Edward Jenks, the Early History of Negotiable Instruments 1
• 51.: William Cranch, Promissory Notes Before and After Lord Holt 1
• 52.: William Reynolds Vance, the Early History of Insurance Law 1
• 53.: Edward Wyndham Hulme, the Early History of the English Patent System 1
• 54.: Joseph Henry Beale, Jr., the History of the Carrier’s Liability 1
• 55.: Cecil Thomas Carr, Early Forms of Corporateness 1
• 56.: William Mitchell, Early Forms of Partnership 1
• 57.: Samuel Williston, the History of the Law of Business Corporations Before 1800 1
• 58.: Simeon Eben Baldwin, History of the Law of Private Corporations In the Colonies and States 1
• Part VI.: Contracts
• 59.: James Barr Ames, the History of Assumpsit 1
• 60.: James Barr Ames, the History of Parol Contracts Prior to Assumpsit 1
• 61.: John William Salmond, the History of Contract 1
• 62.: Crawford Dawes Hening, History of the Beneficiary’s Action In Assumpsit 1
• 63.: Oliver Weldell Holmes, Jr., the History of Agency 1
• Part VII: Torts
• 64.: James Barr Ames, the History of Trover 1
• 65.: Van Vechten Veeder, the History of the Law of Defamation 1
• 66.: John Henry Wigmore, Responsibility For Tortious Acts: Its History 1
• Part VIII: Property (in General)
• 67.: James Barr Ames, the Disseisin of Chattels 1
• 68.: Frederick William Maitland, the Mystery of Seisin 1
• 69.: Arthur George Sedwick and Frederick Scott Wait, the History of the Action of Ejectment In England and the United States 1
• 70.: Harold Dexter Hazeltine, the Gage of Land In MediÆval England 1
• 71.: Arthur Underhill, Changes In the English Law of Real Property During the Nineteenth Century 1
• Part IX.: Wills, Descent, Marriage
• 72.: Charles Gross, the MediÆval Law of Intestacy 1
• 73.: Oliver Weldell Holmes, Jr., Executors In Earlier English Law 1
• 74.: Robert Caillemer, the Executor In England and On the Continent 1
• 75.: Melville Madison Bigelow, the Rise of the English Will 1
• 76.: James Bryce, Marriage and Divorce Under Roman and English Law 1
• List of Authors Contributing

51.

PROMISSORY NOTES BEFORE AND AFTER LORD HOLT1

By William Cranch2

THE question of liability of a remote indorser of a promissory note, in Virginia, came before the court below, about a year before their decision in the present case. It was in the case of Dunlop v. Silver and others, argued at July term 1801, in Alexandria. The court took the vacation to consider the case, and examine the law, and, at the succeeding term, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff by Kilty, Chief Judge, and Cranch, Assistant Judge, contrary to the opinion of Judge Marshall. . . .

The plea was non assumpsit, and a verdict was taken for the plaintiff subject to the opinion of the court, upon the point, whether the holder could maintain an action against the remote indorser of a promissory note.

The statute 3 & 4 Ann. c. 9, respecting promissory notes, is not in force in Virginia; but there is an act of assembly, 1786, c. 29, by which it is enacted, that “an action of debt may be maintained upon a note or writing, by which the person signing the same shall promise or oblige himself to pay a sum of money, or quantity of tobacco, to another;” and that “assignments of bonds, bills and promissory notes, and other writings obligatory, for payment of money or tobacco, shall be valid; and an assignee of any such may, thereupon, maintain an action of debt in his own name; but shall allow all just discounts, not only against himself, but against the assignor, before notice of the assignment was given to the defendant.”

It will be observed, that this act gives no action against the indorser or assignor, nor does it make any distinction between notes payable to order, and those payable only to the payee. Hence, perhaps, it may be inferred, that it left such instruments as the parties themselves, by the original contract, had made (or intended to make) negotiable, to be governed by such principles of law as may be applicable to those instruments. At any rate, it seemed to be admitted, that the act did not affect the present case.

The principal question, then, is, whether this action could have been supported in England, before the statute of Anne.

I. In order to ascertain how the law stood before that statute, it may be necessary to examine how far the custom of merchants, or the lex mercatoria, was recognised by the courts of justice, and by what means the common-law forms of judicial proceedings were adapted to its principles. . . .

The custom of merchants is mentioned in 34 Hen. VIII., cited in Bro. Abr., tit. Customs, pl. 59, where it was pleaded, as a custom between merchants throughout the whole realm, and the plea was adjudged bad, because a custom throughout the whole realm was the common law. And for a long time, it was thought necessary to plead it as a custom between merchants of particular places, viz., as a custom among merchants residing in London and merchants in Hamburg, &c. By degrees, however, the courts began to consider it as a general custom. Co. Litt. 182; 2 Inst. 404. . . .

But after this, in the year 1640, in Eaglechild’s Case, reported in Hetly 167, and Litt. 363, 6 Car. I., it was said to have been ruled (in B. R.), “that upon a bill of exchange between party and party, who were not merchants, there cannot be a declaration upon the law-merchant; but there may be a declaration upon assumpsit, and give the acceptance of the bill in evidence.” This decision seemed to confine the operation of the law-merchant, not to contracts of a certain description, but to the persons of merchants: whereas, the custom of merchants is nothing more than a rule of construction of certain contracts. Jac. Law Dict. (Toml. edit.) tit. Custom of Merchants. Eaglechild’s Case, however, was overruled in the 18 Car. II., B. R. (1666), in the case of Woodward v. Rowe, 2 Keb. 105, 132, which was an action by the indorsee against the drawer of a bill of exchange. . . . It was afterwards moved again, that this “is only a particular custom among merchants, and not common law; but, per curiam, the law of merchants is the law of the land; and the custom is good enough, generally, for any man, without naming him merchant; judgment pro plaintiff, per totam curiam, and they will intend that he, of whom the value is said to be received by the defendant, was the plaintiff’s servant.” . . .

In the year 1760 (1 Geo. III.), in the case of Edie v. The East India Company, 2 Burr. 1226, Mr. Justice Foster said, “Much has been said about the custom of merchants; but the custom of merchants, or law of merchants, is the law of the kingdom, and is part of the common law. People do not sufficiently distinguish between customs of different sorts. The true distinction is, between general customs (which are part of the common law) and local customs (which are not so). This custom of merchants is the general law of the kingdom, part of the common law, and, therefore, ought not to have been left to the jury, after it has been already settled by judicial determinations.” . . . In the case of Pillans & Rose v. Van Mierop & Hopkins, 3 Burr. 1669, Lord Mansfield says, “the law of merchants and the law of the land is the same; a witness cannot be admitted to prove the law of merchants; we must consider it as a point of law.” . . .

This chronological list of authorities tends to elucidate the manner in which the custom of merchants gained an establishment in the courts of law, as part of the common or general law of the land; and shows that it ought not to be considered as a system contrary to the common law, but as an essential constituent part of it, and that it always was of co-equal authority so far as subjects existed for it to act upon. The reason why it was not recognised by the courts, and reduced to a regular system, as soon as the laws relating to real estate, and the pleas of the crown, seems to be, that in ancient times, the questions of a mercantile nature, in the courts of justice, bore no proportion to those relating to the former subjects. . . .

Another reason, perhaps, why we see so much tardiness in the courts in admitting the principles of commercial law in practice, has been the obstinacy of judicial forms of process, and the difficulty of adapting them to those principles which were not judicially established, until after those forms had acquired a kind of sanctity from their long use. Much of the stability of the English jurisprudence is certainly to be attributed to the permanency of those forms; and although it is right, that established forms should be respected, yet it must be acknowledged, that they have, in some measure, obstructed that gradual amelioration of the jurisprudence of the country, which the progressive improvement of the state of civil society demanded. It required the transcendent talents, and the confidence in those talents, which were possessed by Lord Mansfield to remove those obstructions. When he ascended the bench, he found justice fettered in the forms of law. It was his task to burst those fetters, and to transform the chains into instruments of substantial justice. From that time, a new æra commenced in the history of English jurisprudence. His sagacity discovered those intermediate terms, those minor propositions, which seemed wanting to connect the newly-developed principles of commercial law with the ancient doctrines of the common law, and to adapt the accustomed forms to the great and important purposes of substantial justice, in mercantile transactions.

II. Forms of pleading often tend to elucidate the law. By observing the forms of declarations, which have, from time to time, been adapted, in actions upon bills of exchange, we may, perhaps, discover the steps by which the courts allowed actions to be brought upon them, as substantive causes of action, without alleging any consideration for the making or accepting them. The first forms which were used, take no notice of the custom of merchants, as creating a liability distinct from that which arises at common law; but by making use of several fictions, bring the case within the general principles of actions of assumpsit. The oldest form which is recollected, is to be found in Rastell’s Entries, fol. 10,(a) under the head “Action on the Case upon promise to pay money.” Rastell finished his book, as appears by his preface, on the 28th of March 1564, and gathered his forms from four old books of precedents, then existing. This declaration sets forth that

In the oldest books extant in the English language on the subject of the law-merchant, viz., Malynes’ Lex Mercatoria, written in 1622, and Marius’s Advice, which appeared in 1651, it is said, that regularly there are four persons concerned in the negotiating a bill of exchange. A., a merchant in Hamburg, wanting to remit money to D., in England, pays his money to B., a banker in Hamburg, who draws a bill on C., his correspondent or factor in England, payable to D., in England, for value received of A. But in the declaration above recited, there are five persons concerned; and if, as is supposed, that transaction was upon a bill of exchange, the fifth person must have been an indorsee, or assignee of the bill. Another reason for supposing this to be the case, is, that Rastell has no other form of a declaration by an indorsee, although he has two by the payee, viz., one against an acceptor and one against a drawer. . . .

These are the greater part of the precedents of declarations on bills of exchange, to be found in the printed books, before the statute of Anne; and in all of them, those facts are stated which bring the case within the principles which were considered as necessary to support the action of assumpsit, in general cases, at common law. In the more modern forms, the liability of the defendant, under the custom, is considered as a sufficient consideration to raise an assumpsit, without averring those intermediate steps which may be considered as the links of the chain of privity which connects the plaintiff with the defendant. The reason of this change of form was, probably, the consideration that those intermediate links were only fictions, or presumptions of law, which were never necessary to be stated. . . .

III. Having thus seen how the law-merchant was understood, at the time of the statute of Anne, and the manner in which it was applied to the forms of judicial process, it will now be necessary to inquire, at what time the law-merchant was considered as applicable to inland bills, and what was the law respecting such bills and promissory notes, prior to the statutes of 9 & 10 Wm. III., c. 17, and 3 & 4 Ann., c. 9.

It is not ascertained exactly at what time inland bills first came into use in England, or at what period they were first considered as entitled to the privileges of bills of exchange, under the law-merchant. But there was a time, when the law-merchant was considered as “confined to cases where one of the parties was a merchant stranger,” 3 Woodeson, 109; and when those bills of exchange only were entitled to its privileges, one of the parties to which was a foreign merchant. This seems to have been the case, at the time [1622] when Malynes wrote his Lex Mercatoria, in the 4th page of which, he says, “He that continually dealeth in buying and selling of commodities, or by way of permutation of wares, both at home and abroad in foreign parts, is a merchant.” It may be observed also, that Malynes takes no notice of inland bills; hence, we may presume, that they were not in use in his time. . . . In the case of Bromwich v. Loyd, 2 Lutw. 1585 (Hil., 8 Wm. III., C. B.) Chief Justice Treby said, “that bills of exchange at first were extended only to merchant strangers, trading with English merchants; and afterwards, to inland bills between merchants trading one with another here in England; and after that, to all traders and dealers, and of late, to all persons, trading or not.” And in Buller v. Crips, 6 Mod. 29 (2 Ann.), Lord Chief Justice Holt said, he remembered “when actions upon inland bills of exchange first began.”

Perhaps Lord Holt might have been correct as to the time when actions upon inland bills first began, or rather when the first notice was taken of a difference between inland and foreign bills; but it appears probable, that inland bills were in use much before Lord Holt’s remembrance. Marius first published his Advice concerning Bills of Exchange, in 1651, half a century before Lord Holt sat in the case of Buller v. Crips, as appears by Marius’s preface to his second edition; and he there says, he has been twenty-four years a notary-public, and in the practice of protesting “inland instruments and outland instruments.” In p. 2, speaking of a bill between merchants in England, he says, it is “in all things as effectual and binding as any bill of exchange made beyond seas, and payable here in England, which we used to call an outland bill, and the other an inland bill.” If we go back twenty-four years from 1651, the time when Marius first published his Advice, it will bring us to the year 1627; but if we go back twenty-four years from 1670, the probable date of his 2d edition (which was probably his meaning), it will give us the year 1646, as the earliest date to which we can trace them. As Malynes, in his Lex Mercatoria, of 1622, does not notice them, and as Marius mentions them as existing in 1646, it seems probable, that they began to be in use between those two periods. . . .

It is certain, that promissory notes were in use upon the continent, in those commercial cities and towns with which England carried on the greatest trade, long before that period; and were negotiable under the custom of merchants, in the countries from whence England adopted the greater part of her commercial law. They were called bills obligatory, or bills of debt, and are described with great accuracy by Malynes, in his Lex Mercatoria, p. 71, 72, &c., where he gives the form of such a bill, which is copied by Molloy, in p. 447 (7th edition, London, 1722), and will be found in substance exactly like a modern promissory note.

This is nothing more than a verbose promissory note, which, stripped of its redundancies, is simply this: For value received, I promise to pay to C. D., or bearer, 500l. in six months after date. . . .

As Malynes says nothing of inland bills, and yet is so very particular respecting promissory notes, the probability is, that the antiquity of the latter is greater than that of the former, and that they were more certainly within the custom of merchants. Indeed, there is a case prior to any in the books upon inland bills, which is believed to have brought upon such a promissory note, or bill obligatory, as is described by Malynes. It is in Godbolt 49 (Mich., 28 & 29 Eliz., Anno 1586),

Lord Ch. Baron Comyns, in his Digest, tit. Merchant, F. 1, F. 2, in abridging the substance of what Malynes had said upon the subject of bills of debt, or bills obligatory, does not hesitate to state the law to be, that “payment by a merchant shall be made in money or by bill. Payment by bill, is by bill of debt, bill of credit or bill of exchange. A bill of debt, or bill obligatory is, when a merchant by his writing acknowledges himself in debt to another in such a sum, to be paid at such a day, and subscribes it, at a day and place certain. Sometimes, a seal is put to it. But such bill binds by the custom of merchants, without seal, witness or delivery. So it may be made payable to bearer, and upon demand. So, it is sufficient, if it be made and subscribed by the merchant’s servant. So, a bill of debt may be assigned to another toties quoties. And now by the stat. 3 & 4 Anne, c. 9, all notes in writing, made and signed by any person, or the servant or agent,” &c. (reciting the terms of the statute). By thus arranging his quotations from Malynes under the same head with the statute of Anne respecting promissory notes, it is to be inferred, that he considered the custom of merchants, respecting bills of debt, as stated by Malynes, to be the cause or origin of the statute respecting promissory notes; and by connecting the former with the latter by the conjunction “and,” it seems to be strongly implied, that he considered the statute only as a confirmation of what was law before. That he was correct in this opinion, and that the foreign custom of merchants respecting promissory notes, mentioned by Malynes, was gradually and imperceptibly engrafted into the English law-merchant, at the same time, and under the same sanction with inland bills, and that that custom was acknowledged repeatedly by solemn legal adjudications in the English courts, before the statute of Anne, will probably be admitted when the authorities are examined, which will be presented in the following pages. A greater degree of weight will be attached to the opinion of Comyns, when it is recollected, that he was either at the bar or on the bench, during the reigns of King William III., Queen Anne, Geo. I. and Geo. II., and must, therefore, have known how the law stood before the statute, what motives produced it, and what was the true intent of the parliament in passing it. . . .

The time when inland bills and promissory notes began to be in general use in England, was probably about the year 1645 or 1646; and their general use at that time may be accounted for by the facts stated in Anderson’s Hist. of Commerce, vol. 1, p. 386, 402, 484, 492, 493, 519 and 520. In the year 1638 or 1640, King Charles forcibly borrowed 200,000l. of the merchants of London, “who had lodged their money in the king’s mint, in the tower, which place, before banking with goldsmiths came into use, in London, was made a kind of bank or repository for merchants therein safely to lodge their money; but which, after this compulsory loan, was never trusted in that way any more. Afterwards, they generally trusted their cash with their servants, until the civil war broke out, when it was very customary for their apprentices and clerks to leave their masters, and go into the army. Whereupon, the merchants began, about the year 1645, to lodge their cash in goldsmiths’ hands, both to receive and pay for them; until which time, the whole and proper business of London goldsmiths was, to buy and sell plate and foreign coins of gold and silver,” &c.

This short history of the goldsmiths will account for the sudden increase of paper credit, after the year 1645, and renders it extremely probable, that inland bills and promissory notes were in very general use and circulation. Indeed, we know that to be the fact, from the cases in the books; upon examining which, we shall find, that there was no distinction made between inland bills of exchange and promissory notes; they were both called bills; they were both called notes; sometimes, they were called “bills or notes.” Neither the word “inland,” nor the word “promissory,” was at this time in use, as applied to distinguish the one species of paper from the other. The term “promissory note” does not seem to have obtained a general use, until after the statute. There was no distinction made, either by the bench, by the bar, or by merchants, between a promissory note and an inland bill, and this is the cause of that obscurity in the reports of mercantile cases during the reigns of Charles II., James II., and King William, of which Lord Mansfield complained so much in the case of Grant v. Vaughan, 3 Burr. 1525, and 1 W. Bl. 488; where he says, that in all the cases in King William’s time “there is great confusion; for without searching the record, one cannot tell whether they arose upon promissory notes, or inland bills of exchange. For the reporters do not express themselves with sufficient precision, but use the words ‘note’ and ‘bill’ promiscuously.” This want of precision is apparent enough to us, who now (since the decision of Lord Holt in the case of Clerk v. Martin) read the cases decided by him before that time; but at the time of reporting them, there was no want of precision in the reporter, for there was not, in fact, and never had been suggested, a difference in law between a promissory note and an inland bill. They both came into use at the same time, were of equal benefit to commerce, depended upon the same principles, and were supported by the same law.

IV. The case of Edgar v. Chut, or Chat v. Edgar, reported in 1 Keb. 592, 636 (Mich. 15 Car. II., Anno 1663), seems to be the first in the books which appears clearly to be upon an inland bill of exchange. Without doubt, many had preceded it, and passed sub silentio. The case was this: A butcher had bought cattle of a grazier, but not having the money to pay for them, and knowing that the parson of the parish had money in London, he obtained (by promising to pay for it) the parson’s order or bill on his correspondent, a merchant in London, in favor of the grazier. The parson having doubts of the credit of the butcher, wrote secretly to his correspondent, not to pay the money to the grazier, until the butcher had paid the parson. In consequence of which, the London merchant did not pay the draft, and the grazier brought his suit against the parson, and declared on the custom of merchants. It was moved in arrest of judgment, that neither the drawer nor the payee was a merchant; but it was held to be sufficient, that the drawee was a merchant. . . .

The case of Shelden v. Hentley, 2 Show. 161 (33 Car. II., B. R., Anno 1680), was

Here, it will be observed, that the court, in order to elucidate the subject before them, refer to principles of law more certain and better known, viz., that a promissory note payable to bearer is good, and that promissory notes were within the custom of merchants. . . .

If any doubt could remain, that the case of Hill v. Lewis had fully settled the law, that promissory notes were within the custom of merchants, that doubt must have been completely removed by the case of Williams v. Williams, decided at the next term in the same year, in the king’s bench (viz., Pasch., 5 W. & M., Anno 1692), Carth. 269.

There cannot be a stronger case than this. On demurrer, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff in the king’s bench, which judgment was affirmed, upon argument, upon a writ of error in the exchequer chamber, on the very point of the custom; so that here was the unanimous concurrence of all the judges of England. This case, it is believed, has never been denied to be law, either before or since the statute of Anne. A short note of this case is to be found in 3 Salk. 68, by the name of Williams v. Field, in these words, “Ruled, that where a bill is drawn payable to W. R., or order, and he indorses it to B., who indorses it to C., and he indorses it to B., the last indorsee may bring an action against any of the indorsers, because every indorsement is a new bill, and implies a warranty by the indorser, that the money shall be paid.” . . .

Hawkins v. Cardy, in the next year (Mich., 10 Wm. III., B. R.), 1 Ld. Raym. 360; 1 Salk. 65; Carth. 466, was also upon a promissory note.

This, compared with Lord Raymond’s report of the case, shows what has been already so often mentioned, that no difference had yet been discovered between the law respecting promissory notes, and that concerning inland bills of exchange. Even Lord Raymond states it first to be a bill of exchange, and immediately shows it to have been a promissory note. So glaring a contradiction could not have passed uncorrected, if a promissory note and an inland bill of exchange had not been considered as the same thing. In this case, it will be remarked, that upon demurrer, the court said, that this declaration, upon the custom of merchants, on a promissory note, by the indorsee against the maker, would have been good, if the receipt of the 3l. 15s. had been acknowledged. . . .

We have now examined all the reported cases upon promissory notes, from the time of the first introduction of inland bills, to the time of Lord Holt’s decision in the case of Clerke v. Martin. At least, if any others are to be found, they have escaped a diligent search. They form a series of decisions for a period of more than thirty years, in which we discover an uncommon degree of unanimity as well as of uniformity. We find the law clearly established to be the same upon promissory notes as upon inland bills; and we find no evidence that the latter were in use before the former. There is not a contradictory case, or even dictum, unless we consider as such the doubt expressed in the case of Butcher v. Swift, cited by Comyns; but that case is not reported, and therefore, it is impossible to say, upon what ground the doubt was suggested. The cases upon promissory notes and inland bills go to establish not only their likeness in every respect, but even their identity; for the former are almost uniformly called inland bills.

V. Upon examining the printed books of precedents, during the above period, we shall find that the common usage was, to declare upon a promissory note, as upon an inland bill of exchange.

The first precedent of a declaration upon a promissory note is that in Brownlow, Latine Redivivum, p. 74, which is prior [1678] to any of the declarations upon inland bills of exchange. It is, in substance, as follows, that there is, and was, from time immemorial, a custom among merchants at the city of Exeter, and merchants at Crozict, that if any merchant at Crozict should make any bill of exchange, and by the said bill should acknowledge himself to be indebted to another merchant, in any sum of money, to be paid to such other merchant, or his order, and such merchant to whom the same should be payable, should order such sum to be paid to another merchant, and such merchant to whom the same was payable, should request the merchant who acknowledged himself so as aforesaid to be indebted, to pay such sum to such other merchant to whom he had ordered the money to be paid; and if, upon such request, the merchant who acknowledged himself to be indebted in the sum in such bill and indorsement mentioned, should accept thereof, then he would become chargeable to pay the said sum to the person to whom it was by the said bill and indorsement directed to be paid, at the time in the said bill mentioned, according to the tenor thereof. It then avers, that on the 8th May 1678, the defendant, according to the custom aforesaid, acknowledged himself to be indebted to one M. M. in 52s., which he obliged himself and his assigns (this is probably misprinted) to pay to the said M. M., who, by indorsement on the same bill of exchange, on —, at —, ordered the money to be paid to the plaintiff, which bill of exchange afterwards, to wit, on —, at —, the defendant saw and accepted, by which acceptance, and by the usage aforesaid, the defendant became liable, &c., and in consideration thereof, promised to pay, &c. There is, in the same book, p. 77, a declaration upon a bill of exchange at double usance, which is probably upon an inland bill, as the custom is alleged, generally, among merchants, but does not say at what place. . . .

In 2 Mod. Intr. 126, is another declaration upon the custom, by the indorsee against the maker of three promissory notes, dated in 1697. This declaration is precisely like a modern declaration upon a promissory note, excepting that the note is called a bill, and is said to be made and indorsed “according to the custom of merchants,” “whereby, according to the custom of merchants,” the defendant became liable, and so being liable, &c. In p. 122, is another by payee v. the maker of a promissory note, calling it a “bill or note,” and setting forth the custom specially. In every case upon a promissory note, the declaration is grounded on the custom of merchants.

Upon a review of this list of authorities and precedents, we are at a loss to imagine from what motive, and upon what grounds, Lord Holt could at once undertake to overrule all these cases, and totally change the law as to promissory notes: and why he should admit inland bills of exchange to be within the custom of merchants, and deny that privilege to promissory notes; when the same evidence which proved the former to be within the custom, equally proved that it extended to the latter. By examining the books, it will be found, that most of the points which have been decided respecting inland bills of exchange, have been decided upon cases on promissory notes. If he considered promissory notes as a new invention, when compared with inland bills of exchange, he seems to have mistaken the fact; for the probability is, that the former are the most ancient, or, to say the least, are of equal antiquity.

VI. But let us proceed to examine the case of Clerke v. Martin (Pasch., 1 Anne, B. R., 2 Ld. Raym. 757; 1 Salk. 129), upon which alone is founded the assertion in modern books “that before the statute of Anne, promissory notes were not assignable or indorsable over, within the custom of merchants, so as to enable the indorsee to bring an action in his own name against the maker.” The case is thus reported by Lord Raymond:

These five cases, viz., Clerke v. Martin, Potter v. Pearson, Burton v. Souter, Cutting v. Williams, and Buller v. Crips, are the only reported cases in which the former decisions were overruled, and it may be observed, that the four last were decided upon the authority of the first, which is to be considered as the leading case; and it is, in that case, therefore, that we are to look for the grounds upon which so great a change of the established law was founded. . . .

Hence, then, we find, from an examination of all the cases before the statute of Anne, that it never was adjudged, that a promissory note for money, payable to order, and indorsed, was not an inland bill of exchange. But we find, that the contrary principle had been recognised, in all the cases, from the time of the first introduction of inland bills and promissory notes, to the first year of Queen Anne, and that in one of them, it had been expressly adjudged, upon demurrer, in the king’s bench, and the judgment affirmed, upon argument, in the exchequer chamber, before all the judges of the common pleas and barons of the exchequer, so that it may truly be said to have been solemnly adjudged by all the judges of England. Principles of law so established, are not to be shaken by the breath of a single judge, however great may be his learning, his talents or his virtues. That Lord Holt possessed these in an eminent degree will never be denied; but he was not exempt from human infirmity. The report itself, in the case of Clerke v. Martin, shows that, from some cause or other, he was extremely irritated with the goldsmiths of Lombard street, and that his mind was not in a proper state for calm deliberation and sound judgment. The same observation applies to the case of Buller v. Crips, and is further confirmed, by that of Ward v. Evans, 2 Ld. Raym. 930, in which his lordship said, “But then I am of opinion, and always was (notwithstanding the noise and cry, that it is the use of Lombard street, as if the contrary opinion would blow up Lombard street), that the acceptance of such a note is not actual payment.” This circumstance has also been noticed by judges and others, in some of the more modern reports.

VII. From this concurrent testimony, it is apparent, that the case of Clerke v. Martin was a hasty, intemperate decision of Lord Holt, which was acquiesced in by the other judges, in consequence of his overbearing authority, “which made others yield to him;” and that he so “pertinaciously” adhered to his opinion, as to render it necessary to apply to parliament to overrule him. This, it is believed, is the true origin of the statute of Anne, which did not enact a new law, but simply confirmed the old; the authority of which had been shaken by the late decision of Lord Holt. This idea is confirmed by the words of the preamble of the statute, which are, “Whereas, it hath been held,” that notes in writing, &c., payable to order, “were not assignable or indorsable over, within the custom of merchants,” and that the payee could “not maintain an action, by the custom of merchants,” against the maker; and that the indorsee “could not, within the said custom of merchants, maintain an action upon such note” against the maker; “therefore, to the intent to encourage trade and commerce,” &c., be it enacted, &c., that all notes in writing made and signed by any person, &c., whereby such person, &c., shall promise to pay to any other person, &c., or his order, or unto bearer, any sum of money, &c., “shall be taken and construed to be, by virtue thereof, due and payable to any such person, &c., to whom the same is made payable;” “and also every such note, payable to any person,” &c., “or his order, shall be assignable or indorsable over, in the same manner as inland bills of exchange are or may be, according to the custom of merchants,” and that the payee “may maintain an action for the same, in such manner as he might do upon any inland bill of exchange, made or drawn according to the custom of merchants, against the person, &c., who signed the same.” And that the indorsee “may maintain his action,” for such sum of money, either against the maker or any of the indorsers, “in like manner as in cases of inland bills of exchange.” Here, it may be observed, that by using the words, “it hath been held,” the legislature clearly allude to certain opinions, which they carefully avoid to recognise as law. And in the enacting clause, they say, that such notes “shall be taken and construed to be due and payable,” &c., expressing thereby a command to certain persons, without saying expressly that the notes shall be due and payable, &c., for this being the law before, it was not necessary to enact the thing itself, but to instruct the judges how they should construe it. The mischief to be remedied was the opinion which had “been held,” not any defect in the law itself. By comparing this act with the cases decided prior to Clerke v. Martin, it will be found to contain no principles but such as had been fully recognised by the courts of law. It follows, therefore, that it was passed simply to restore the old order of things, which had been disturbed by Lord Holt.

The only real effect of the statute was to alter a few words in the declaration. The old forms allege that the defendant became liable by reason of the custom of merchants, the new say, that he became liable by force of the statute. Even Lord Holt himself always admitted, that an indebitatus assumpsit for money had and received, or money lent, would lie, and the note would be good evidence of it. His objections were only to the form of the action, and not to the liability of the parties. A promissory note was always as much a mercantile instrument as an inland bill of exchange, and there certainly seems to be more evidence that the former is within the custom of merchants than the latter, and that it was so, at an earlier period, on the continent of Europe, from whence it was introduced into England; and when introduced, it came attended with all the obligations annexed, which the custom had attached to it.

We, sometimes, in modern books, meet with an assertion that a promissory note was not negotiable at common law; this may be true, because a promissory note was not known at common law, if from the term common law we exclude the idea of the custom of merchants. It was a mercantile instrument, introduced under the custom of merchants. But if the custom of merchants is considered, as it really is, a part of the common law, then the assertion that a promissory note was not negotiable at the common law, is not correct. . . .

IX. The statute of Anne having put the question at rest, no one has taken the pains to examine the real state of the law, prior to the statute, but one writer after another has repeated the assertion, without the least examination. In England, it is of no importance, whether they are correct or not; but in this country, where few of the states have adopted the statute, it becomes interesting to know how the law really stood before. . . .

The observations in these cases from Virginia, respecting promissory notes, may be reduced to three propositions. 1st. That promissory notes were not negotiable, before the statute of Anne, so as to enable the indorsee to bring an action in his own name. 2d. That the act of assembly, by assimilating notes to bonds, shows an intention in the legislature to restrain the negotiability of both within the same limits. 3d. That the negotiability given by the act of assembly to bonds and notes was not “intended for purposes of commerce.”

The first of these propositions is clearly incorrect. It never was doubted, until the case of Clerke v. Martin, in the first year of Queen Anne, that a promissory note was a bill of exchange, even between the payee and the maker. . . .

The second proposition, that the act of assembly, by assimilating notes to bonds, intended to restrain their negotiability within the same limits, contains an argument which, if used at the trial, was not much insisted on, but which seems to be the only ground upon which a doubt can be supported. . . .

In Pennsylvania, a number of cases have occurred, from the whole of which it appears doubtful, whether the statute of Anne is to be considered as having been extended in practice to that state, or whether their actions upon promissory notes are grounded upon the custom of merchants. Their act of assembly of 28th May 1715, seems to have been passed in the full contemplation of the statute of Anne, but it provides a right of action only for the indorsee against the maker, and that only to recover so much “as shall appear to be due at the time of the assignment, in like manner” as the payee might have done. But it gives no action to the payee against the maker, nor to the indorsee against any of the indorsers. . . .

In the subsequent case of McCulloch v. Houston, in the supreme court of Pennsylvania, 1 Dall. 441, Chief Justice McKean was of opinion, that the legislature intended to put promissory notes on the same footing as bonds, at least, so far as to admit the equity of a note to follow it into the hands of the indorsee. He says, “before this act, it appears, that actions by the payee of a promissory note were not maintained, nor can they since be maintained, otherwise than by extending the English statute of Anne.” And to account for this extension of the statute, he supposes, “that actions upon promissory notes were brought here, soon after the passing of the statute, by attorneys who came from England, and were accustomed to the forms of practice in that kingdom, but did not perhaps nicely attend to the discrimination with regard to the extension, or adoption, of statutes.” But this could not have happened in the course of ten years, so as to have established a practice; for we are first to suppose a practice in England under the statute, a subsequent removal of attorneys from England to Pennsylvania, and then a practice in Pennsylvania to be established, and all this between the passing of the statute of Anne in the year 1705, and the act of assembly in 1715. A more probable conjecture seems to be, that the first settlers who came over from England about the year 1683, were well acquainted with the use of promissory notes, and the laws respecting them, as they had been practised upon in that country, for at least thirty years. The first emigrations to Pennsylvania were about the time when the banking business of the goldsmiths was at its greatest height, and it was fifteen or twenty years after the first settlement of Pennsylvania, before a doubt was suggested, whether an action would lie on a promissory note, as an instrument. Hence, it is probable, that actions on such notes were brought in the same manner as they had been used in England, to wit, on the custom of merchants; and upon that ground, and not upon the statute of Anne, probably rests the present practice in Pennsylvania.

The practice in New Hampshire and Massachusetts seems to have the same foundation. They declare upon promissory notes, as instruments, and rely upon the express promise in writing, without alleging a consideration, or referring to any statute or custom whereby the defendant is rendered liable, without a consideration. In Connecticut, it is said by Swift, in his System of the Laws, that the indorsee must sue in the name of the payee; but the payee can maintain an action upon the note, without alleging any custom, or statute or consideration. In New York, they have nearly copied the statute of Anne, as far as it relates to promissory notes, but how the law was considered, before their act of assembly of 1788, we are not informed. In Maryland, the statute of Anne was considered as in force and always practised upon. Their declarations have been precisely in the English form, alleging the defendant to be liable by force of the statute, and the courts have strictly adhered to the adjudications in England. Hence, nothing conclusive can be inferred from the practice of the states.

The third proposition drawn from the reported cases in Virginia is, that the negotiability given to bonds and notes by the act of assembly of that state, was not intended for purposes of commerce. It seems difficult to assign a reason why the legislature should have made bonds and notes assignable, unless it was to enable people to transfer that kind of property which existed in such bonds and notes; and the transfer of property is the only means of commerce. . . . If, therefore, for the purposes of commerce, the legislature intended to make those contracts negotiable, which were not so, either in their nature or by the consent of the parties, it is fair to presume, that they did mean to impede the negotiability of such as were in their own nature negotiable, and were expressly intended to be made so, by the will of the contracting parties? If there were any principles of law which would support the negotiability of a promissory note, payable to order, it cannot be supposed, that the legislature intended, by implication alone, to obstruct their operation. And even admitting that they did not, by the act making bonds and notes assignable, mean, to aid commerce, yet it cannot be presumed, that they intended to wage war with those commercial principles which were already established.

This brings us back again to the first inquiry, what were the principles upon which the negotiability of promissory notes was supported, before the statute of Anne? If such principles did exist, there seems to be nothing in this act of assembly which prevents their full operation in Virginia.

[1 ]This Essay first appeared as Note A to the case of Mandeville v. Riddle, in the Appendix to Cranch’s Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, vol. I, 1804. Large portions have been omitted, chiefly the detailed quotations of cases.

[2 ]1769-1855. Harvard College, A. B. 1787, LL. D. 1829; admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1790, and to the Washington Bar in 1794; assistant judge of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, 1801-1805; chief justice of the same, 1805-1855.

Other Publications: Reports of Cases in the Circuit Courts of the District of Columbia (6 volumes) and in the Supreme Court of the United States (9 volumes), 1801-1841; author of a code of laws for the District.