First full analysis of the rich records surviving from medieval English town courts.
Town courts were the principal institution responsible for the delivery of justice and urban administration within medieval towns. Their records survive in large quantities in archives across England, and they provide an unparalleled insight into the lives and work of thousands of men and women who lived in these towns. The court rolls tell us much about the practice of law at the local level within towns, as well as yielding a broad range of perspectiveson the economy, society and administration of towns.
This volume is the first collection dedicated to the analysis of town courts and their records. Through a wide range of approaches, it offers new interpretations of the role that these courts played. It also demonstrates the wide range of uses to which court records can be put to in order to more fully understand medieval urban society. The volume draws on the records of a considerable number of towns and their courts across England, including London, York, Norwich, Lincoln, Nottingham, Lynn, Chester, Bromsgrove and Shipston-on-Stour.
RICHARD GODDARD is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham; TERESA PHIPPS is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History at Swansea University.
Contributors: Christopher Dyer, Richard Goddard, Jeremy Goldberg, Alan Kissane, Maryanne Kowaleski, Jane Laughton, Esther Liberman Cuenca, Susan Maddock, Teresa Phipps, Samantha Sagui
Table of Content
Introduction – Richard Goddard and Teresa Phipps
Town Courts in Medieval England: An Introduction – Maryanne Kowaleski
Borough Court Cases as Legal Precedent in English Town Custumals – Esther Liberman Cuenca
The Priest of Nottingham and the Holy Household of Ousegate: Telling Tales in Court – Jeremy Goldberg
Female Litigants and the Borough Court: Status and Strategy in the Case of Agnes Halum of Nottingham – Teresa Phipps
Courts and Urbanisation: Jurisdiction in Late Medieval Seigneurial Boroughs and Towns – Christopher Dyer
The Business of the Leet Courts in Medieval Norwich, 1288-1391 – Samantha Sagui
The Black Death and the Borough Court: The Changing Pattern of Social and Judicial Representation in Late Medieval Lincoln – Alan Kissane
Justice and Jurisdictions in Late Medieval Chester – J W Laughton
Trust: Business Networks and the Borough Court – Richard Goddard
Society, Status and the Leet Court in Margery Kempe’s Lynn – Susan Maddock
Appendix: An Annotated List of Printed or Online Transcriptions and Translations of Medieval Town Courts in Britain to 1500
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Christopher Dyer is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Leicester. He has written, edited, co-authored and co-edited many books, including William Dugdale, Historian, 1605-1686: His Life, his Writings and His County (Boydell, 2009).
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