George Caines
American reprter of cases
George Caines (1771 – July 10, 1825) was the first official reporter of cases in the United States, appointed by the Court of Appeals of New York in accordance with legislation enacted by that state in April 1804. He occupied the office for one year, producing three volumes of the Reports, containing decisions from May 1803 to November 1805. Under the archaic abbreviation system once used for case citations, these reports are officially known as Caines' Reports, and are abbreviated as (vol) Cai. R. (page). Cases from other courts also reported by Caines are in volumes titled Caines' Cases, abbreviated as (vol) Cai. Cas. (page), while his edited versions of cases reported by William Coleman are titled Coleman & Caines' Cases, abbreviated as (vol) Cole. & Cai. Cas. (page).
“George Caines” enters the record as american reprter of cases. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what George, Caines and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“George Caines” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, George, Caines and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5537615. VIAF identifies the subject as 55300504. The Library of Congress control number is n88130705. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1771, 1825, 1804 and 1803.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “George Caines”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow George Caines primary sources, George Caines archive and George research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “George Caines”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “George Caines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.