The History of the Law of Prescription in England: Being the Yorke Prize Essay of the University of Cambridge for 1890

This essay by Thomas Arnold Herbert, first published in 1891, deals with the history of prescription in English law, analogous to the more commonly known statute of limitations. Herbert won the prestigious Yorke Prize in 1890 for a longer version of this essay, which was then reduced by the author to a more specific treatise on this aspect of the history of law. This is a highly informative essay on the evolution of an important aspect of English jurisdiction and is well supplied with a list of the relevant case law.

Preface; Introductory; 1. For what time prescription must run; 2. The Prescription Act; 3(i). Who may prescribe; 3(ii). Who may be prescribed against; 4. What things may be prescribed for; 5. How prescription must be made: the requisites of prescription; 6. The public benefit; 7. Prescription against the rules of common law or against statutes; 8. Pleading a prescription against a prescription; 9. How the prescription must be pleaded; 10. What finding will support a prescription; 11. How prescriptive rights are destroyed or lost.