Definition
Fitzherbert, as used in legal sources, refers to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert (c. 1470–1538), a serjeant-at-law and later judge of the Court of Common Pleas during the reign of Henry VIII. The name functions as a bibliographic shorthand in legal citations and commentary, pointing to one of three works attributed to him:
1. The Graunde Abridgement (c. 1514–1516): A comprehensive digest of Year Book case law organized under alphabetical subject headings. One of the earliest and most ambitious attempts to systematically organize English common law, and a foundational reference for centuries of legal practice and scholarship.
2. La Novel Natura Brevium (New Natura Brevium, c. 1534): A practical treatise on writs, explaining the forms of action available at common law. Long regarded as a standard practitioner's reference on pleading and process.
3. A treatise on justices of the peace: A less frequently cited work addressing the duties and authority of justices in the local administration of law.
When a historical legal text cites "Fitzherbert" without further qualification, context usually determines which work is meant. Citation to "F.N.B." or "Fitz. N.B." specifically indicates the Natura Brevium.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century English legal sources will encounter Fitzherbert's name as a citation authority, not as a party or subject. The name operates like a treatise abbreviation, and failing to recognize it as such can derail source identification.
The Graunde Abridgement is significant because it preceded Brooke's Abridgment (which was partly a response and supplement to it) and influenced Coke, Blackstone, and virtually every subsequent attempt to digest the common law. Researchers tracing the lineage of a common law doctrine may find that Fitzherbert's Abridgement is the earliest organized statement of it.
The Natura Brevium occupies a distinct lane: it is a forms-of-action reference, not a digest of cases. Annotations and commentaries on the Natura Brevium were added by later hands over successive editions, meaning the text a researcher encounters may carry editorial accretions that postdate Fitzherbert himself. Researchers should verify which edition they are consulting.
A practical trap: Fitzherbert's works were written in Law French, and early printed editions vary in accuracy. Translations and modernizations exist but are uneven. Passages quoted in secondary sources sometimes rely on these imperfect translations.
Fitzherbert's role as a judge of Common Pleas is occasionally relevant when a Year Book report identifies him as counsel or on the bench, distinct from his authorial identity. The two roles should not be conflated in case-tracing work.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje and Lawrence give a compact but serviceable notice: they identify Fitzherbert as serjeant-at-law, then judge of Common Pleas under Henry VIII, name all three works, and point to Reeves's History of English Law and Foss's Judges of England as supporting authorities. This entry is more biographical index than legal definition, which is appropriate — "Fitzherbert" functions in legal research as a proper name carrying bibliographic weight, not as a term of art requiring doctrinal unpacking.
What Rapalje and Lawrence do not address: the distinction between the Abridgement and the Natura Brevium as research tools, the Law French textual issues, or the editorial history of later editions. Researchers relying solely on the Rapalje and Lawrence entry will know who Fitzherbert was but will need additional sources to use his works effectively.
Jurisdictional Note
Fitzherbert's works are authorities in English common law exclusively. Their relevance in American legal research is historical — establishing what the common law was at the time of reception into American jurisdictions — rather than operative. Courts citing Fitzherbert in American cases are invariably doing so to establish the historical content of a common law rule, not as binding precedent.