DOCSLIB.ORG

WILLIAM SHEPPARD, CROMWELL's LAW REFORMER William Sheppard Is Best Known As One of the Most Prolific Legal Authors of the Seventeenth Century

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
WILLIAM SHEPPARD, CROMWELL's LAW REFORMER William Sheppard Is Best Known As One of the Most Prolific Legal Authors of the Seventeenth Century CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ENGLISH LEGAL HISTORY Edited by D. E. C.YALE Fellow of Christ's College and Reader in English Legal History at the University of Cambridge WILLIAM SHEPPARD, CROMWELL'S LAW REFORMER William Sheppard is best known as one of the most prolific legal authors of the seventeenth century. His twenty-two books on the law include studies of conveyancing, actions on the case, tithe collection, several guides for local law enforcement and the first three legal encyclopedias to be written in the English language. His most interesting book, England's Balme, contains the most comprehensive set of law reform proposals published in that century. This study presents the first full account of Sheppard's employment under Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate as well as an examination of his family background and education, his religious commitment to John Owen's party of Independents and his legal philosophy. An appraisal of all Sheppard's legal works, including those written during the civil war and the restoration period, illustrates the overlapping concerns with law reform, religion and politics in his generation. Sheppard had impressively consistent goals for the reform of English law and his prescient proposals anticipate the reforms ultimately adopted in the nineteenth century, culminating in the Judicature Acts of 1875—8. Dr Matthews examines the relative importance of Sheppard's books to his generation and to legal literature in general, assessing such bibliographical problems as the allegation that Justice Dodderidge was the original author of the Touchstone of Common Assurances. The study provides a full bibliography of Sheppard's legal and religious works and an appendix of the sources Sheppard used in the composition of his books on the law. Nancy L. Matthews has been a Lecturer at University of Maryland and George Mason University and is now employed by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C. WILLIAM SHEPPARD, CROMWELL'S LAW REFORMER NANCY L. MATTHEWS The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE LONDON NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE MELBOURNE SYDNEY PUBLISHED BYTHE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http ://www. cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1984 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1984 First paperback edition 2004 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress catalogue card number: 84-5832 ISBN 0 521 26483 9 hardback ISBN 0 521 89091 8 paperback CONTENTS Preface page vii Notes on Style and on Bibliography ix Abbreviations x Introduction 1 1 Biography 5 2 Early Legal Works, 1641-1654 72 3 The Protectorate Period, 1654-1659 103 4 England's balme Sheppard's model for reform 145 Law reform in the parliament of 1656 186 5 Later Contributions to Legal Literature, 1660-1674 231 6 Conclusion 264 Bibliographical Comment 273 Chronological Bibliography of Sheppard's Books 278 Sheppard's Sources 286 Index 295 PREFACE This study was originally undertaken for a master's thesis at the University of Maryland. Without the critical assistance and advice I have received from my adviser, J. S. Cockburn, and from D. E. C. Yale, the editor of this series, and from J. H. Baker, the appraisal of Sheppard's contributions to legal literature would have been sorely inadequate. All have generously offered many helpful suggestions and it is a pleasure to express my thanks to each of them. Professor Cockburn has been unfailingly supportive, from the first seminar paper to the final reading of this manuscript. I would also like to express my appreciation to G. E. Aylmer for the helpful information he provided on details of the political and administrative history of the interregnum, and for the guidance given by Laurence E. Miller, Jr, on the intricacies of Calvinist theology. Throughout this project I have benefited immeasurably from many discussions with Charles M. Cook on the difficult problems connected with law reform. All of the individuals mentioned above provided substantial help by commenting on early drafts, saving me from misleading statements and outright mistakes. Any remaining errors in fact or judgment are, naturally, my own. Most of the initial research was done at The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., where I received invaluable assistance from the members of the capable staff and from other readers at that congenial institution. I would also like to express my appreciation to the staff of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., with particular thanks to the Rare Book Division of the Law Library; to the staff at McKeldin Library, University of Maryland in College Park; and of the Treasure Room, Harvard Law School, and The Houghton Rare Book Library, both of Harvard University. During my research trips to England, courtesies were extended to me in London by the archivists and librarians of the British Library, Dr Williams's Library, Dulwich College Library, the Guildhall Library, the Institute of Historical Research, Lincoln's Inn Library, The viii PREFACE Middle Temple Library and the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane. I also consulted books and manuscripts held by Cambridge University Library and the libraries of Caius and Trinity Colleges of that university, the Bodleian and Worcester College Library of Oxford University, and the Gloucester Public Library. The Mar- quess of Bath granted me permission to consult the Whitelocke Papers at Longleat House. The staff of the Gloucestershire Records Office was very patient with my requests for countless records of parishes and of the city corporation, the consistory court, local manors and various family papers. I wish to thank all the individuals of those institutions for their helpful assistance and courtesy. Staff members of several libraries and repositories answered my letters requesting information, for which I am also grateful. They include the staff at Yale University working on the revision of Donald Wing's Short-title catalogue, Wadham College, Oxford, Dr Williams's Library, London, and the Wiltshire Record Office, as well as all the libraries holding copies of England's balme. I would like to thank the American Bar Foundation and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation for the research grants that assisted me in the completion of this study. The History Department of the University of Maryland cooperated by allowing me to finish a project that took much longer to complete than any of us first suspected. I am particularly grateful to the late Walter Rundell, Jr, and Emory G. Evans, successive chairmen of the department, for their encouragement and support. The friendship and hospitality of British friends too numerous to list here made my working trips to England even more delightful than I had expected. Shelagh Weir especially has my deep gratitude. At home, I am greatly indebted to my children, Leslie, Diane, Josh and David Arnson, for coping with the household during my absences, and even more thankful for their encouragement and cooperation when I was working at home. Finally, it is a pleasure to extend my thanks for the countless ways my mother, Edna Matthews, my family, friends and colleagues have assisted me in the time it has taken to complete this work. NOTES ON STYLE AND ON BIBLIOGRAPHY American spelling has been used throughout including, for the sake of consistency, words within quotations. The only exceptions are the titles of books which appear as they were first published, with occasional punctuation added for clarity. All citations to Sheppard's books refer to the first edition unless otherwise noted. The place of publication has been provided only for those books printed outside London. Cambridge publications refer to England unless Massa- chusetts is specified. Dating has been adjusted to the extent that the new year is reckoned to begin on 1 January rather than 25 March. In all other respects the seventeenth-century calendar has been followed. Quotations have been modernized in capitalization, spelling and punctuation and it is hoped that greater clarity will compensate for what has been lost in contemporary flavor. Sheppard's penchant for capitalizing words for emphasis was as pronounced as his indifference to uniform spelling. Indeed, he had little regard for consistency in spelling his own name. I hope that the fervency of the curious mixture of his idealism and pragmatism still reaches the reader, lower case notwithstanding. Page numbers appearing in square brackets indicate actual sequence of unpaginated pages while those in single inverted commas denote an error in the printed pagination. The bibliography at the close of the text is in two parts. In the first, Sheppard's books have been listed in chronological order and include both subsequent editions by the author and posthumous editions by later editors. The second part lists the sources Sheppard cited in his works. The decision to include this unconventional listing was made with the hope that the sources Sheppard relied upon in the composition of his works on the law will be of interest to students of legal history three centuries later. Primary and secondary sources used for this study are found in the footnotes. Printed sources cited in more than one chapter are listed with the abbreviations.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Criminal Law Reform with the Hon Jarrod Bleijie
    The Great Leap Backward: Criminal Law Reform with the Hon Jarrod Bleijie Andrew Trotter∗ and Harry Hobbs† Abstract On 3 April 2012, the Honourable Member for Kawana, Jarrod Bleijie MP, was sworn in as Attorney-General for Queensland and Minister for Justice. In the period that followed, Queensland’s youngest Attorney-General since Sir Samuel Griffith in 1874 has implemented substantial reforms to the criminal law as part of a campaign to ‘get tough on crime’. Those reforms have been heavily and almost uniformly criticised by the profession, the judiciary and the academy. This article places the reforms in their historical context to illustrate that together they constitute a great leap backward that unravels centuries of gradual reform calculated to improve the state of human rights in criminal justice. I Introduction Human rights in the criminal law were in a fairly dire state in the Middle Ages.1 Offenders were branded with the letters of their crime to announce it to the public, until that practice was replaced in part by the large scarlet letters worn by some criminals by 1364.2 The presumption of innocence, although developed in its earliest forms in Ancient Rome, does not appear to have crystallised into a recognisable form until 1470.3 During the 16th and 17th centuries, it was common to charge the families of a prisoner sentenced to death a fee for their execution, but ∗ BA LLB (Hons) QUT; Solicitor, Doogue O’Brien George. † BA LLB (Hons) ANU; Human Rights Legal and Policy Adviser, ACT Human Rights Commission. The authors thank Professor the Hon William Gummow AC for his helpful comments on earlier drafts and the editors and anonymous reviewers for their assistance in the final stages.
    [Show full text]
  • Catholicism HDT WHAT? INDEX
    ST. BERNARD’S PARISH OF CONCORD “I know histhry isn’t thrue, Hinnissy, because it ain’t like what I see ivry day in Halsted Street. If any wan comes along with a histhry iv Greece or Rome that’ll show me th’ people fightin’, gettin’ dhrunk, makin’ love, gettin’ married, owin’ th’ grocery man an’ bein’ without hard coal, I’ll believe they was a Greece or Rome, but not befur.” — Dunne, Finley Peter, OBSERVATIONS BY MR. DOOLEY, New York, 1902 “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Roman Catholicism HDT WHAT? INDEX ROMAN CATHOLICISM CATHOLICISM 312 CE October 28: Our favorite pushy people, the Romans, met at Augusta Taurinorum in northern Italy some even pushier people, to wit the legions of Constantine the Great — and the outcome of this would be an entirely new Pax Romana. While about to do battle against the legions of Maxentius which outnumbered his own 4 to 1, Constantine had a vision in which he saw a compound symbol (chi and rho , the beginning of ) appearing in the cloudy heavens,1 and heard “Under this sign you will be victorious.” He placed the symbol on his helmet and on the shields of his soldiers, and Maxentius’s horse threw him into the water at Milvan (Mulvian) Bridge and the Roman commander was drowned (what more could one ask God for?). 1. In a timeframe in which no real distinction was being made between astrology and astronomy, you will note, seeing a sign like this in the heavens may be classed as astronomy quite as readily as it may be classed as astrology.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lies of the Regicides? Charles I's Judges at the Restoration
    THE LIES OF THE REGICIDES? CHARLES I’S JUDGES AT THE RESTORATION By Dr Jason Peacey Those involved in the trial of Charles I, and who were still living in 1660, found themselves marked men. Vilified in public and in print, they faced choices about how to behave, and how to respond to the probability that they would be punished by the king or parliament. Some fled, and some of these lived out their days in relative safety, although others lived troubled lives, either because of the threat of violence or of capture, and some clearly lived in obscurity and sought to cover their tracks and assume new identities. Some were eventually caught, and three were brought back to England, tried, sentenced and executed. Others surrendered under the terms of a June 1660 proclamation, either in the hope of securing pardon or of mitigating their guilt, although it was always clear that their fate depended upon the attitude of MPs, who were given the power to determine who should be punished and who should be pardoned. As it turned out, MPs proved more vindictive than the king, resulting in the trial of twenty-nine men in October 1660, twenty-seven of whom pleaded guilty. There followed a bloody week of hangings, drawings and quarterings, when ‘the stench of their burnt bowels had so putrefied the air as the inhabitants thereabouts petitioned His Majesty there might be no more executed in that place’.1 My aim here is to explore how some of those associated with the king’s trial responded to the Restoration, not least because the fate of the regicides has received considerably less attention than that of Charles I, and because most attention has been paid to the attitude and grizzly fate of those radical and defiant king-killers who expressed little remorse.2 And my purpose is to suggest that existing treatments of the regicides focus too heavily upon a small group of living and dead men, from Oliver Cromwell to Thomas Harrison.
    [Show full text]
  • Bills of Attainder
    University at Buffalo School of Law Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship Winter 2016 Bills of Attainder Matthew Steilen University at Buffalo School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles Part of the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Matthew Steilen, Bills of Attainder, 53 Hous. L. Rev. 767 (2016). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/123 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLE BILLS OF ATTAINDER Matthew Steilen* ABSTRACT What are bills of attainder? The traditional view is that bills of attainder are legislation that punishes an individual without judicial process. The Bill of Attainder Clause in Article I, Section 9 prohibits the Congress from passing such bills. But what about the President? The traditional view would seem to rule out application of the Clause to the President (acting without Congress) and to executive agencies, since neither passes bills. This Article aims to bring historical evidence to bear on the question of the scope of the Bill of Attainder Clause. The argument of the Article is that bills of attainder are best understood as a summary form of legal process, rather than a legislative act. This argument is based on a detailed historical reconstruction of English and early American practices, beginning with a study of the medieval Parliament rolls, year books, and other late medieval English texts, and early modern parliamentary diaries and journals covering the attainders of Elizabeth Barton under Henry VIII and Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, under Charles I.
    [Show full text]
  • Stapylton Final Version
    1 THE PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE OF FREEDOM FROM ARREST, 1603–1629 Keith A. T. Stapylton UCL Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Page 2 DECLARATION I, Keith Anthony Thomas Stapylton, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Signed Page 3 ABSTRACT This thesis considers the English parliamentary privilege of freedom from arrest (and other legal processes), 1603-1629. Although it is under-represented in the historiography, the early Stuart Commons cherished this particular privilege as much as they valued freedom of speech. Previously one of the privileges requested from the monarch at the start of a parliament, by the seventeenth century freedom from arrest was increasingly claimed as an ‘ancient’, ‘undoubted’ right that secured the attendance of members, and safeguarded their honour, dignity, property, and ‘necessary’ servants. Uncertainty over the status and operation of the privilege was a major contemporary issue, and this prompted key questions for research. First, did ill definition of the constitutional relationship between the crown and its prerogatives, and parliament and its privileges, lead to tensions, increasingly polemical attitudes, and a questioning of the royal prerogative? Where did sovereignty now lie? Second, was it important to maximise the scope of the privilege, if parliament was to carry out its business properly? Did ad hoc management of individual privilege cases nevertheless have the cumulative effect of enhancing the authority and confidence of the Commons? Third, to what extent was the exploitation or abuse of privilege an unintended consequence of the strengthening of the Commons’ authority in matters of privilege? Such matters are not treated discretely, but are embedded within chapters that follow a thematic, broadly chronological approach.
    [Show full text]
  • I the Committee of Safety
    .· (~. ll II Ii ) ' THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY. 11 "A thesis submitted to the ,, faculty of the Graduate School of the University of • Minnesota by Etheleen Frances ;emp in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ii degree of Master of Arts, May 5, 1911. 1;1 I Ii II Ii 11 ' :S I:BLI OGRAPHY. l. Source Material 1. Journals of the House of Lords, vol. V and VI. Journals of the House of Commons, vol. II and III. These contain the greater portion of the material on the Committee of Safety. 2. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. London, 1874 etc. These volumes contain here and there a com­ munication to or from the Committee of Safety but have much less material that might be expected. References found:- 4th Report p 262. 5th Report pp. 48, 54, 56, 63, 65, 69, 80, 107, 114. 7th Report pp. 550-588. 10th Report App. 6 pp. 87-88. 13th Report App. 1 p. 104. 3. Calendar of State Papers. Domestic 1641-1644 London, 1887-8 lla.ny order for military supplies are given in the State Papers but not in full. 4. Rushworth,John, Historical collections, 8 vol. London, 1682-1701. Compilation of declarations and proclamations. Vol. 3 and 7 contain material on the Committee. They contain valuable proclamations of the King which cannot be found elsewhere. 5. Somers, Lord. Tracts, 13 vol. London, 1809-1815. Has several remonstrances of value. ){) 1 ~ ( ' ,.... 6. Whitacre. Diary Add. M S S 31, 116, fol. Had notes from first six months of the Committee period especially.
    [Show full text]
  • GLOUCESTERSHIRE ROUNDHEADS by Russell Howes
    Reprinted from Gloucestershire History N0. 7 (1993) pages 4-7 GLOUCESTERSHIRE ROUNDHEADS By Russell Howes The people of Gloucestershire were divided in the civil war of themselves at vast expense. However the story goes that Cromwell the seventeenth century, some being for the king, and some for and Ireton visited Chavenage, and persuaded Stephens to support parliament. Each county and borough returned two members to the setting up of a court to try the king. Charles I was executed in parliament, and in Gloucestershire. as in some other counties, one 1649, though Stephens was not a member of the court. The story was a royalist. and the other a parliamentarian. The parliamentarian continues that, soon after the execution, Stephens died, and his was Nathaniel Stephens, who had houses at Eastington and shade departed in a carriage driven by a headless man in royal Chavenage. At the first election of 1640 he was suddenly set up livery. However he was alive in 1660, when he was named a commissioner for the militia, and a tablet in Eastington church i '. indicates that he died that year. Q :13. Two cousins of Nathaniel were in parliament. Edward Q '.\l-' Stephens of Little Sodbury was member for Tewkesbury. He opposed the trial of Charles I, and published A Letter ofAdvice to J ‘II Qag] 5 N ' " “" g Sir Thomas Faitfax, imploring him to save the nation from 7 #431 | 14,.-. murdering the king. He helped to bring about the restoration in 7-»-I" __ 7 . T‘ “'3 .21 _*- \-w-Q " -_ *5-‘ 1- 1660; as ‘old Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • C:\Users\User1\Documents
    Date:June 3,2021 Last Web Update:September 2,2020 WHITLOCK FAMILY RESEARCH - PRINTED & ORIGINAL SOURCES R0001/20 Research by Wilfred John Whitlock - Whitlocks of Langtree, Devon to 1968 R0002/7 Whitlocks of Devon research by J.R. Powell Nov.1910 R0002A/5 Whitlocks of Warkleigh, Langtree, Parkham, Devon from Kate Johnson (nee Whitlock) June 1968 R0003/6 Photocopies of Whitelocke entries in Biographical Dictionary R0004/1 Whitlocks of Warkleigh with connection to Whitlocks of Illinois by Frank M. Whitlock 1936 R0004A/1 Whitlocks of Warkleigh descent from John Lake of Bradmore (Bodleian Library:Rawl D 287) R0004B/1 Whitlocks of Warkleigh descent from John Lake from Visitation of Devon (edit J.L. Vivian. Exeter 1895) R0005/4 Letter from M.M. Johns to Elmo Ashton re Whitlocks of Langtree, Devon R0006/2 Biography of Brand Whitlock (1869-1934) R0007/3 Whitlocks of Devon parish register extracts R0008/1 Biography of Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) from Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians from M.M. Johns R0009/1 Letter Dd. June 7,1906 from J. Stanley Wedlock of Stanley Bridge, P.E.I.. to John Whitlock of Holdsworthy (sic), Devon R0010/3 Whitlock extracts from Biographical Dictionaries from J.E.I. Wyatt R0011/2 Alumni Oxonienses, The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714 by Joseph Foster from Ruth Spalding R0012/1 Biographical sketch of Thomas Whitlock (1806-1875)'s life by Rev.W.C.Beer R0013/54 Whitlocks of Berkshire descent from John Whitlock & Agnes De la Beche (M about 1454) from J. Wyatt 1969 R0014/ (renumbered) R0015/1 Newspaper clipping re 50th Wedding Anniversary of Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Pennsylvania Magazine of HISTORY and BIOGRAPHY
    THE Pennsylvania Magazine OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY Governor John Blackwell: His Life in England and Ireland OHN BLACKWELL is best known to American readers as an early governor of Pennsylvania, the most recent account of his J governorship having been published in this Magazine in 1950. Little, however, has been written about his services to the Common- wealth government, first as one of Oliver Cromwell's trusted cavalry officers and, subsequently, as his Treasurer at War, a position of considerable importance and responsibility.1 John Blackwell was born in 1624,2 the eldest son of John Black- well, Sr., who exercised considerable influence on his son's upbringing and activities. John Blackwell, Sr., Grocer to King Charles I, was a wealthy London merchant who lived in the City and had a country house at Mortlake, on the outskirts of London.3 In 1640, when the 1 Nicholas B. Wainwright, "Governor John Blackwell," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (PMHB), LXXIV (1950), 457-472.I am indebted to Professor Wallace Notestein for advice and suggestions. 2 John Blackwell, Jr., was born Mar. 8, 1624. Miscellanea Heraldica et Genealogica, New Series, I (London, 1874), 177. 3 John Blackwell, Sr., was born at Watford, Herts., Aug. 25, 1594. He married his first wife Juliana (Gillian) in 1621; she died in 1640, and was buried at St. Thomas the Apostle, London, having borne him ten children. On Mar. 9, 1642, he married Martha Smithsby, by whom he had eight children. Ibid.y 177-178. For Blackwell arms, see J. Foster, ed., Grantees 121 122, W.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter VIII Witchcraft As Ma/Efice: Witchcraft Case Studies, the Third Phase of the Welsh Antidote to Witchcraft
    251. Chapter VIII Witchcraft as Ma/efice: Witchcraft Case Studies, The Third Phase of The Welsh Antidote to Witchcraft. Witchcraft as rna/efice cases were concerned specifically with the practice of witchcraft, cases in which a woman was brought to court charged with being a witch, accused of practising rna/efice or premeditated harm. The woman was not bringing a slander case against another. She herself was being brought to court by others who were accusing her of being a witch. Witchcraft as rna/efice cases in early modem Wales were completely different from those witchcraft as words cases lodged in the Courts of Great Sessions, even though they were often in the same county, at a similar time and heard before the same justices of the peace. The main purpose of this chapter is to present case studies of witchcraft as ma/efice trials from the various court circuits in Wales. Witchcraft as rna/efice cases in Wales reflect the general type of early modern witchcraft cases found in other areas of Britain, Europe and America, those with which witchcraft historiography is largely concerned. The few Welsh cases are the only cases where a woman was being accused of witchcraft practices. Given the profound belief system surrounding witches and witchcraft in early modern Wales, the minute number of these cases raises some interesting historical questions about attitudes to witches and ways of dealing with witchcraft. The records of the Courts of Great Sessions1 for Wales contain very few witchcraft as rna/efice cases, sometimes only one per county. The actual number, however, does not detract from the importance of these cases in providing a greater understanding of witchcraft typology for early modern Wales.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lives of the Chief Justices of England
    This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com Cui.U.K. &3o 1 THE LIVES OK THE CHIEF JUSTICES ENGLAND. FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TILL THE DEATH OF LORD TENTERDEN. By JOHN LOKD CAMPBELL, LL.D. F.E.S.E.: AUTHOR OF 'THE LIVES OF THE LOKD CHANCELLORS OF ENGLANd.' THIRD EDITION. IN FOUR VOLUMES.— Vol. II. LONDON: JOHN MUEKAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET. 1874. The right of Translation is reserved. Uniform with the present Work. LIVES OF THE LOED CHANCELLOBS, AND Keepers op the Great Skal op England, from the Earliest Times till the Reign of George the Fourth. By John Lord Campbell, LL.D. Fourth Edition. 10 vols. Crown 8vo. 6s. ' each. " A work of sterling merit — one of very great labour, of richly diversified interest, and, we arc satisfied, of lasting value and estimation. We doubt If there be half-a-dozen living men who could produce a Biographical Series on such a scale, at all likely to command so much applause from the candid among the iearned as well as from the curious of the laity." — Quarterly Review. &ONdON: PRINTEd BT WILLIAM CLOWES ANd SONS, STAMFORd STREET ANd CHARING CROSS. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER XI.— continued. LIVES OF THE CHIEF JUSTICES FROM THE DISMISSAL OF SIR EDWARD COKE TILL THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH. Sir Nicholas Hyde, Page 1. His Reputation as a Lawyer, 1. His Con duct as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Judicial Encounters with Quakers 1660 1688*
    Judicial Encounters with Quakers 1660 1688* URING the reigns of Charles II and James II many Quakers were subjected to the rigours of the penal D laws against dissenters and Catholics. As a result, they often looked to the members of the common law judiciary for redress. Unfortunately the "twelve men in scarlet" who manned the courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer were not considered by contemporary observers to be independent arbiters of the law, but rather, were seen as civil servants of the Crown, "stewards of royal power charged with implementing the royal will".2 They had indeed been long utilized by the Crown for political and administrative, as well as legal purposes, and had been discredited by their decisions favouring the royal prerogative in the last years of Charles I's "personal" rule.3 Likewise, by 1688 they had again, for the same reason, found themselves discredited in the eyes of the victorious opposition.4 Although Whig accusations of judicial subservience to the Stuart kings appear influenced far more by partisan politics than by legal appreciation^ the judges throughout most of the reigns of Charles II and James II did hold their patents "during the king's pleasure" and dismissals 1 In this article quotations from manuscripts have been modernized in spelling, punctuation and capitalization. Old Style dating has been retained. The term "dissenter" means one who attended a religious conventicle as denned by the Conventicle Act (16 Car. II, 0.4). > J. S. Cockburn, History of English assizes, 1558-1714 (Cambridge, 1972), p. 6.
    [Show full text]