William Wyche

P1 In 1794 William Wyche wrote A Treatise on the Practice of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of New-York in Civil Actions , 1 the first book on New York practice 2 and possibly "the first American practice manual." 3 Wyche the author has the prominence priority brings; Wyche the man, to a substantial extent, is a mystery. "Even the least sturdy straws must be grasped if we are to catch any glimpse" of Wyche and his career. 4 Wyche in England P2 William Wyche was the only son of William Wyche of St. Marylebone Parish, Middlesex (just outside of London). 5 He entered Gray's Inn on November 21, 1788, 6 at a time when Gray's was the smallest and perhaps least prestigious of the four Inns of Court. 7 Wyche's name did not appear in the Pension Book , the official record of Gray's Inn, indicating that he never attained the five years' standing required for a call to the bar. 8 The eighteenth-century Inns of Court made little pretense of being educational institutions, and most junior members of the inns learned their law as pupils in the chambers of practicing barristers. 9 In this way, presumably, Wyche acquired the learning he later displayed in his practice Treatise . P3 We do not know what caused Wyche to leave England. Members of the Inns of Court usually came from fairly prosperous backgrounds, 10 and then, as now, prosperous people generally did not emigrate without good ...