Hearings before the King's Bench
- When
- 22 January – 7 February 1772
- Where
- Court of King's Bench
- Part of
- Somersett's Case
Mansfield ordered a hearing for 22 January 1772, but after an adjournment and counsel's preparation the case was not heard until 7 February 1772.
Mansfield ordered a hearing for 22 January 1772. Somerset's counsel's request to prepare arguments was granted, and following an adjournment the case was not heard until 7 February 1772. On Somerset's behalf it was argued that while colonial laws might permit slavery, neither the common law of England nor any law made by Parliament recognised the existence of slavery, and slavery was therefore illegal.
Sources
- William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25
- Somerset v Stewart Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.