Hérédité

1782 · 7101 — s.l.: s.n. 1782. 4to pp. viii 27 1 176; 52. Extracted from a volume with portion of leather spine and label remaining. Some soiling to front and rear final page torn at gutter. Ownership inscription to title page of Sir Wm Forbes Bart. A rare document of a dispute of inheritance pursued by the daughter of Helenus Halkerston of Rathillet against the geologist Captain later Lieutenant-Colonel Ninian Imrie of Denmuir d. 1820. Miss Halkerston argues that the releveant deeds executed before her father’s death were invalid by reason of his insanity and apparently James Boswell was approached for an opinion though he declined. Halkerston had published a short work ‘Considerations on man in his natural as well as moral state’ in 1764 ‘solving all the phænomena of the animal world of our moral and physical intelligence &c. hitherto so much the subjects of dispute’ - a subsequent edition of which was appended to 400 pages of land ownership dispute under the new title of ‘An appeal to reason’ 1778 perhaps evidence for Halkerston’s mental state. Indeed the printer of the latter edition contributes much testimony here. The ESTC record is based on a single copy held in Aberdeen which lacks the title-page and the next leaf as well as the final leaf - and therefore is catalogued under a different title. ESTC T230518. [s.n.] hardcover