Although without an editor's name, it appears that Thomas Salmon (1679–1767), an historical and geographical writer, was responsible for the collection.
A second edition, increased to six volumes, under the editorship of Sollom Emlyn (1697–1754), appeared in 1730.
This edition contained a lengthy preface critically surveying the condition of English law at the time.
This edition is in thirty-three volumes; twenty-one of them, giving the more important state trials down to 1781, were edited by TB Howell, and the remaining volumes, bringing the trials down to 1820, by his son Thomas Jones Howell (d. 1858).
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.