"State Trials was a series of cases that was published in different editions between the early eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries. Although it mainly covered trials for treason and other political offences since 1163, the scope of the series was wider, including cases of murder or even sexual scandal where there was some wider political significance. The series was for many years the main source of information about the history of criminal procedure and evidence. It also played an important role in the political education. In the eighteenth century it was conceived as a manual of how to defend liberty against state oppression. To the Victorians it was a record of liberties achieved in the areas of trial by jury and parliamentary democracy."
Lindsay Farmer, 'State Trials' in The New Oxford Companion to Law (OUP 2008)
In 1808 William Cobbett projected a new edition of the State Trials, & employed Thomas Bayly Howell as editor. Howell (senior) is responsible for the volumes published between 1809 - 1814. Indeed, by 1811 he had taken over the project entirely from Cobbett. His son, Thomas Jones Howell, worked as editor for the remaining volumes, published 1815–26. "Together they succeeded in arranging and co-ordinating the untidy mass of information left by previous editors"
Gordon Goodwin, rev. Jonathan Harris ‘Howell, Thomas Bayly (1767–1815)’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [accessed 13 June 2017]
Preferred Abbreviation is St.Tr. Alternative Abbreviations you may encounter in older footnotes : Cob.St.Tr. ; Cobb.St.Tr. ; How.St.Tr. ; S.T. ; St.Tr. ; St.Tri. ; State Tr.
The Law Bod's copies of Howell's State Trials are now quite fragile: we would ask readers to use one of the online sources (see links below). However, if you have a need to see the physical volumes, please just ask a member of staff, and they can be fetched for you.
"A new series, under the direction of a parliamentary committee, was projected in 1885, with the object of bringing the trials down to a later date. Eight volumes were published in 1888–1898, bringing the work down to 1858. The first three of these were edited by Sir John Macdonell, the remaining five by John E P Wallis."
Available on open shelf at KB61.ENG.STA
Lindsay Farmer, 'State Trials' in The New Oxford Companion to Law. (OUP 2008)
First edition
A compleat collection of state-tryals, and proceedings upon impeachments for high treason, and other crimes and misdemeanours; : from the reign of King Henry the Fourth, to the end of the reign of Queen Anne. In four volumes. With an exact alphabetical table to the whole.. 1719 Edited by Thomas Salmon ESTC, T108672
Second edition
A complete collection of state-trials, and proceedings for high treason, and other crimes and misdemeanours; from the reign of King Richard II. to the end of the reign of King George I. In six volumes. With two alphabetical tables to the whole. 1730 edited by Sollom Emlyn ESTC T108500.
Volumes 7, 8 were issued as a supplement in 1735 entitled 'A collection of state-trials',
Third Edition
A complete collection of state-trials, and proceedings for high-treason, and other crimes and misdemeanours ; from the reign of King Richard II. to the reign of King George II. ... With two alphabetical tables to the whole. 6 vols 1742 ESTC T148933.
Fourth edition
A complete collection of state-trials, and proceedings for high-treason, ... the fourth edition; commencing with the eleventh year of the reign of King Richard II. and ending with the sixteenth year of the reign of King George III. ... To which is prefixed, a new preface, By Francis Hargrave 1776-81 11 volumes ESTC T112654.
Townsend, William C. Modern state trials Rev., and illustrated with essays and notes. (1850) 2 vols
Stephen, H.L. State trials, political and social (1899) 2 vols