Legal History Miscellany
@legalmiscellany.bsky.social
Blogging on the history of law, crime, and justice at www.legalhistorymiscellany.com.
New guest post by Susannah Wilson, on homicide, forensic psychology, and perceptions of criminal culpability in late 19th century France: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/11/20/t...
The Body by the Canal: The Abduction and Murder of Henriette Barbey in 1882
In this guest post, Susannah Wilson gives a snapshot of the killing and trial at the centre of her new book on forensic psychology and female violence: ‘A Most Quiet Murder: Maternity, Afflic…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
New guest post by Susannah Wilson, on homicide, forensic psychology, and perceptions of criminal culpability in late 19th century France: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/11/20/t...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
What if the Devil made them do it? A new post by
@kjkesselring.bsky.social
'Crime, Culpability, and the Devil in the Details'.
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/10/27/c...
@kjkesselring.bsky.social
'Crime, Culpability, and the Devil in the Details'.
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/10/27/c...
Crime, Culpability, and the Devil in the Details
Did claims of having fallen for the devil’s seductions heighten or lessen perceptions of a person’s guilt in early modern English legal processes?
legalhistorymiscellany.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:50 AM
What if the Devil made them do it? A new post by
@kjkesselring.bsky.social
'Crime, Culpability, and the Devil in the Details'.
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/10/27/c...
@kjkesselring.bsky.social
'Crime, Culpability, and the Devil in the Details'.
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/10/27/c...
New post by @drkdwatson.bsky.social and Carolyn Strange: "Poisoning Crimes and the ‘Mushroom Murderer’: Patterns and Precedents"
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/09/23/p...
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/09/23/p...
Poisoning Crimes and the ‘Mushroom Murderer’: Patterns and Precedents
By Cassie Watson and Carolyn Strange; posted 23 September 2025. The prosecution and sentencing of the Australian ‘Mushroom Murderer’ to life in prison for the poisoning of three relatives and the a…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:08 PM
New post by @drkdwatson.bsky.social and Carolyn Strange: "Poisoning Crimes and the ‘Mushroom Murderer’: Patterns and Precedents"
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/09/23/p...
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/09/23/p...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
My new post is up!
Butler, "Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England" (2025).
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
Butler, "Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England" (2025).
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England
Posted by Sara M. Butler, 14 Aug. 2025. There is no medieval record more enjoyable to peruse than visitation returns. Although visitations developed over the course of the ninth century, it was not…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
August 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
My new post is up!
Butler, "Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England" (2025).
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
Butler, "Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England" (2025).
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
New post by @sarabutler.bsky.social: 'Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England': legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England
Posted by Sara M. Butler, 14 Aug. 2025. There is no medieval record more enjoyable to peruse than visitation returns. Although visitations developed over the course of the ninth century, it was not…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
August 15, 2025 at 11:55 AM
New post by @sarabutler.bsky.social: 'Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England': legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
My new post @legalmiscellany.bsky.social: 'Arresting Developments', on the abduction of an heiress in 1702 and the dangers of arrests. legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/a...
Arresting Developments
Beginning with the abduction of the young heiress Pleasant Rawlins in 1702, this post discusses how arrests were abused and resisted in 17th and 18th-century England.
legalhistorymiscellany.com
July 14, 2025 at 9:30 AM
My new post @legalmiscellany.bsky.social: 'Arresting Developments', on the abduction of an heiress in 1702 and the dangers of arrests. legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/a...
'Arresting Developments': a new post, on the abuses and dangers of arrests in 17th and 18th-century England: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/a...
Arresting Developments
Beginning with the abduction of the young heiress Pleasant Rawlins in 1702, this post discusses how arrests were abused and resisted in 17th and 18th-century England.
legalhistorymiscellany.com
July 14, 2025 at 9:21 AM
'Arresting Developments': a new post, on the abuses and dangers of arrests in 17th and 18th-century England: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/a...
How and why do forms of assault change with wider socio-legal changes? New post from @drkdwatson.bsky.social on acid attacks and more. legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/06/27/t...
Tackling the ‘Assault Deficit’
By Cassie Watson; posted 27 June 2025. In my previous post I argued that assault should be seen as an important avenue of research by crime and legal historians, but noted that it is usually more d…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
June 27, 2025 at 11:12 AM
How and why do forms of assault change with wider socio-legal changes? New post from @drkdwatson.bsky.social on acid attacks and more. legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/06/27/t...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
The first batch of STAC 5 (Elizabethan Star Chamber proceedings) catalogue enhancements went live today. Short titles, dates, party names, document type, and county as standard. For some other really exciting additions, read on. discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/r/C...
Browse records of other archives | The National ArchivesThe National ArchivesThe National ArchivesOpen Government LicenceGOV.UK
The official archive of the UK government. Our vision is to lead and transform information management, guarantee the survival of today's information for tomorrow and bring history to life for everyone...
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk
May 28, 2025 at 8:05 AM
The first batch of STAC 5 (Elizabethan Star Chamber proceedings) catalogue enhancements went live today. Short titles, dates, party names, document type, and county as standard. For some other really exciting additions, read on. discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/r/C...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
CFP: Workshop on 'Crime and Conjugality in Europe, pre-1800' to be held in Oxford, 6 July 2026; deadline for expressions of interest is 15 Sept 2025. Please help spread the word! #history #SkyStorians www.bristol.ac.uk/law/events/2...
Call for papers: Crime and Conjugality in Europe, pre-1800
www.bristol.ac.uk
May 28, 2025 at 8:24 AM
CFP: Workshop on 'Crime and Conjugality in Europe, pre-1800' to be held in Oxford, 6 July 2026; deadline for expressions of interest is 15 Sept 2025. Please help spread the word! #history #SkyStorians www.bristol.ac.uk/law/events/2...
A new post from @sarabutler.bsky.social: 'All Bastards Are Free?' legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/05/16/a...
All Bastards are Free: The Medieval Origins of the Common Law Rule
Posted by Sara M. Butler, 16 May 2025. Medieval illustration of men harvesting wheat with reaping-hooks or sickles, on a calendar page for August. Queen Mary’s Psalter (Ms. Royal 2. B. VII), …
legalhistorymiscellany.com
May 16, 2025 at 10:46 AM
A new post from @sarabutler.bsky.social: 'All Bastards Are Free?' legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/05/16/a...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
Now available as a (potentially affordable) paperback www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
April 23, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Now available as a (potentially affordable) paperback www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
Sara Burton and Susanna Bastwick launched the petitioning campaign against the 'arbitrary' Star Chamber, eventually resulting in its abolition.
@kjkesselring.bsky.social's new post on @legalmiscellany.bsky.social reveals the #PowerOfPetitioning:
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
@kjkesselring.bsky.social's new post on @legalmiscellany.bsky.social reveals the #PowerOfPetitioning:
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
April 22, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Sara Burton and Susanna Bastwick launched the petitioning campaign against the 'arbitrary' Star Chamber, eventually resulting in its abolition.
@kjkesselring.bsky.social's new post on @legalmiscellany.bsky.social reveals the #PowerOfPetitioning:
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
@kjkesselring.bsky.social's new post on @legalmiscellany.bsky.social reveals the #PowerOfPetitioning:
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
Never miss anything by @kjkesselring.bsky.social!
A new post, on the end of the infamous Court of Star Chamber and its afterlife: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
The End(s) of a Lawless Court
Why and how did the Court of Star Chamber come to be seen as a lawless court? And did the act that abolished the court in 1641 end the lawless discretion people feared in it?
legalhistorymiscellany.com
April 22, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Never miss anything by @kjkesselring.bsky.social!
A new post, on the end of the infamous Court of Star Chamber and its afterlife: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
The End(s) of a Lawless Court
Why and how did the Court of Star Chamber come to be seen as a lawless court? And did the act that abolished the court in 1641 end the lawless discretion people feared in it?
legalhistorymiscellany.com
April 22, 2025 at 8:13 AM
A new post, on the end of the infamous Court of Star Chamber and its afterlife: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
A new post from @drkdwatson.bsky.social on why and how to bring assault into studies of the history of violence: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/03/30/i...
Investigating the ‘Assault Deficit’
By Cassie Watson; posted 30 March 2025. According to Robert Shoemaker, quoting an eighteenth-century observer, “the vague legal definition of assault meant that ‘any injury done to a man in an angr…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
March 30, 2025 at 9:04 AM
A new post from @drkdwatson.bsky.social on why and how to bring assault into studies of the history of violence: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/03/30/i...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
Had a lovely time chatting about my new book on the history of imprisonment in London with @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social Listen to us at the link below or wherever you normally get your podcasts:
newbooksnetwork.com/to-detain-or...
@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.com/to-detain-or...
@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
Kiran Mehta, "To Detain or to Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750–1840" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
March 25, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Had a lovely time chatting about my new book on the history of imprisonment in London with @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social Listen to us at the link below or wherever you normally get your podcasts:
newbooksnetwork.com/to-detain-or...
@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.com/to-detain-or...
@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
Extremely pleased to announce (and first ever post here) that Danica Summerlin and my special issue on 'law beyond the legal renaissance', funded by @britishacademy.bsky.social, is now out, with open access introduction www.tandfonline.com/toc/flgh20/4... .
The Journal of Legal History
Volume 46, Issue 1 of The Journal of Legal History
www.tandfonline.com
March 24, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Extremely pleased to announce (and first ever post here) that Danica Summerlin and my special issue on 'law beyond the legal renaissance', funded by @britishacademy.bsky.social, is now out, with open access introduction www.tandfonline.com/toc/flgh20/4... .
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
This is a great resource: 355 historic statutes on slavery from the Atlantic World, 1661 - 1838.
Laws of Enslavement and Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic World
slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca
#History #EnslavedHistory #LegalHistory 🗃️
Laws of Enslavement and Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic World
slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca
#History #EnslavedHistory #LegalHistory 🗃️
Home | Laws of Enslavement and Freedom
slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca
March 16, 2025 at 12:28 PM
This is a great resource: 355 historic statutes on slavery from the Atlantic World, 1661 - 1838.
Laws of Enslavement and Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic World
slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca
#History #EnslavedHistory #LegalHistory 🗃️
Laws of Enslavement and Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic World
slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca
#History #EnslavedHistory #LegalHistory 🗃️
A new guest post, by Andrea McKenzie on 17th century legal shorthand and its uses - not just for speed, but also secrecy and snark: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/03/12/s...
Between the Lines and Off the Record: A Sampling of Shorthand Notations from George Treby’s Middle Temple Notebooks, 1667-72
In this guest post, Andrea McKenzie examines the uses of shorthand by a 17th-century law student (and future MP and chief justice) — speed, secrecy, and cover for lots of criticism and gossip…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
March 12, 2025 at 8:03 AM
A new guest post, by Andrea McKenzie on 17th century legal shorthand and its uses - not just for speed, but also secrecy and snark: legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/03/12/s...
A new post from @sarabutler.bsky.social: Weird and Wonderful: The Mixed Cultural Heritage of England's Common Law
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/02/20/w...
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/02/20/w...
Weird and Wonderful: The Mixed Cultural Heritage of England’s Common Law
Posted by Sara M. Butler, 20 Feb. 2025. Despite the anti-immigrant rhetoric that gushes forth from the mouths of right-leaning politicians and pervades our news and social media, it is hard to deny…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
February 20, 2025 at 1:14 PM
A new post from @sarabutler.bsky.social: Weird and Wonderful: The Mixed Cultural Heritage of England's Common Law
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/02/20/w...
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/02/20/w...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
New digital resource:
Rediscover the lost Court of King's Bench
#skystorians 🗃️ #c18th kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org/?fbclid=IwY2...
Rediscover the lost Court of King's Bench
#skystorians 🗃️ #c18th kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org/?fbclid=IwY2...
kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org
Site of some of English legal history’s most important trials, this project seeks to bring back to life this lost courtroom and the cases it heard.
kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org
February 6, 2025 at 7:22 PM
New digital resource:
Rediscover the lost Court of King's Bench
#skystorians 🗃️ #c18th kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org/?fbclid=IwY2...
Rediscover the lost Court of King's Bench
#skystorians 🗃️ #c18th kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org/?fbclid=IwY2...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
Guess who is now on Bluesky? @legalmiscellany.bsky.social
And here's the most recent post by Krista Kesselring! legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/01/06/c...
And here's the most recent post by Krista Kesselring! legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/01/06/c...
Cruel Mercy? Coronation Pardons, Clemency, and Constraints
As we approach the U.S. Inauguration and the promised Day 1 pardons to people who tried to thwart the last transition, this post looks back at English coronation pardons: what did they do and why d…
legalhistorymiscellany.com
January 8, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Guess who is now on Bluesky? @legalmiscellany.bsky.social
And here's the most recent post by Krista Kesselring! legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/01/06/c...
And here's the most recent post by Krista Kesselring! legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/01/06/c...
Reposted by Legal History Miscellany
For those unfamiliar with our shared blog, Legal History Miscellany, legalhistorymiscellany.com here is the first post of 2025!
January 6, 2025 at 10:36 AM
For those unfamiliar with our shared blog, Legal History Miscellany, legalhistorymiscellany.com here is the first post of 2025!