Thomas Branch

His Principia Legis et Æquitatis was regarded as "the accumulated spirit and wisdom of ... the English law."

in the obituary of the Gentleman's Magazine for December 1769 was his wife, it may be presumed that he was still alive at that time.

[1][2] Branch was the author of Thoughts on Dreaming (1738), and Principia Legis et Æquitatis (1753).

[1] Thoughts on Dreaming was a response to Andrew Baxter's Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul (1733), in which Branch refuted Baxter's argument that dreams are the work of supernatural agents.

[3] Principia Legis et Æquitatis was a collection of maxims, definitions, and remarkable sayings about law and equity, mostly in Latin, presented in alphabetical order.