According to Jefferson Bacon’s work marked the third period of English law. In his letter to Thomas Cooper, previously quoted, written on January 16, 1814, after commenting on the works of Bracton and Coke, marking the first and second periods, Jefferson continued: “ . . . 3. The same processes recommencing, of Statutory changes, new decisions, multiplied Reports, and special treatises, a new accumulation had formed, calling for new reduction, by the time of Matthew Bacon. his work therefore, altho’ not pretending to the textual merit of Bracton’s or Coke’s, was very acceptable. his alphabetical arrangement indeed, altho’ better than Coke’s jumble, was far inferior to Bracton’s. but it was a sound digest of the materials existing on the several alphabetical heads under which he arranged them. his work was not admitted as authority in Westminster hall; yet it was the Manual of every judge and lawyer, and, what better proves it’s worth, has been it’s daily growth in the general estimation . . . ”

Seven years later, on February 26, 1821, Jefferson sent a copy of this letter to Dabney Terrell, in answer to a request for an opinion on the course of reading, and added supplementary remarks: “ . . . 2. Then passing over (for occasional reading as hereafter proposed) all the Reports and treatises to the time of Matthew Bacon, read his abridgment, compiled about 100. years after Coke’s, in which they are all embodied. this gives numerous applications of the old principles to new cases, and gives the general state of the English law at that period.

" Here too the Student should take up the Chancery branch of the law, by reading the 1 ^st. and 2 ^d. abridgments of the cases in Equity. the 2 ^d. is by the same Matthew Bacon, the 1 ^st. having been published some time before. the alphabetical order, adopted by Bacon, is certainly not as satisfactory as the systematic. but the arrangement is under very general and leading heads; and these indeed, with very little difficulty, might be systematically, instead of alphabetically arranged and read . . . ”

Jefferson made the same statements with regard to Bacon in other letters, in that to Bernard Moore for example, of which he sent a copy to John Minor on August 30, 1814, remarking that the original had been written “ near 50. years ago.”

Matthew Bacon, Irish barrister, was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1731 and was called to the bar in 1732. The first edition of this work was issued anonymously, “By a Gentleman of the Middle Temple”, 1736-1766.

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