Included are decisions from various city, state, and lower federal courts sitting in Philadelphia, dating from the colonial period and the first decade after independence, as well as reports from a state court of Delaware, and the British Privy Council in an appeal from New Hampshire.

Alexander J. Dallas, a Philadelphia lawyer and later United States Secretary of the Treasury, had been in the business of reporting local law cases for newspapers and periodicals.

(Court reporters in that age received no salary, but were expected to profit from the publication and sale of their compiled decisions.)

Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania and other decisions, adding federal Supreme Court cases to his reports.

Dallas remained in Philadelphia; William Cranch then replaced him as Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The dual citation form of, for example, Turner v. Bank of North America is 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)

(To avoid confusion, the Pennsylvania Court of Errors and Appeals will be cited as "Pa. Ct. Err.

The size of the Court is not specified; the Constitution leaves it to Congress to set the number of justices.

were decided, the Court comprised six of the following seven justices at one time: New York v. Connecticut, 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)