Oxford Quarter Sessions Order Book, 1614-1637 (Hardcover, New)

Records of the crimes committed in Oxford, and the punishment meted out, reveal much of life at the time. Most historical studies of English justices of the peace have concentrated on the work of county commissions, leaving the sparser records of city and borough justices largely neglected. This early order book of the city of Oxford's justices in quarter sessions illustrates the special problems of an urban magistracy in a rather special place, at a time when both university and city were feeling the strain of rapid population growth in a cramped environment.It shows, sometimes in harrowing detail, how the Oxford Bench [an unusual mix of shopkeepers, brewers, lawyers, and university dons] struggled to control crime, vagrancy, disorder, and poverty in a divided community. Much of thebusiness of these early seventeenth-century courts would be all too familiar to the modern magistrate: an endless stream of cases of petty larceny, assault, abusive behaviour, unlicensed ale-selling; hopeless recidivists testing the patience of the court to its limit. The sanctions available to the seventeenth-century JP, however, were very different, fines and imprisonment being much less common than consignment to the whipping post, the cage, the stocks,the ducking stool, the House of Correction and, when all else failed, the gallows.

General

Imprint:	Oxford Historical Society
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Oxford Historical Society New Series
Release date:	November 2009
First published:	2009
Editors:	Robin Blades
Introduction by:	Alan Crossley
Dimensions:	216 x 138 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	234
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-904107-22-7
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1500 to 1750 Books > Humanities > History > British & Irish history > General Books > Law > Laws of other jurisdictions & general law > Courts & procedure > General Books > History > British & Irish history > General Books > History > World history > 1500 to 1750
LSN:	0-904107-22-1
Barcode:	9780904107227

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