Whores and Highwaymen

J. Durston Gregory

Description

The 'whores' and 'highwaymen' of Gregory Durston's title are just some of the dubious characters met within this absorbing work, including thief-takers, trading justices, an upstart legal profession whose lower orders developed various ways to line their own pockets and magistrates and clerks who often preferred dealing with those cases which attracted fees.

Sujets

• Droit et juridique
• Legal history

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 19 novembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908162182
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Whores and Highwaymen
Crime and Justice in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis
Gregory J Durston
Copyright and Publication Details
Whores and Highwaymen
Crime and Justice in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis
Gregory J Durston
ISBN 978-1-904380-75-7 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-908162-19-9 (Adobe E-book)
ISBN 978-1-908162-18-2 (Epub E-book)
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QH . Tel: [phone]; [e-mail] ; www.gardners.com
Copyright © 2012 This work is the copyright of Gregory J. Durston. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by the author in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2012 Waterside Press. Design by www.gibgob.com
Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
e-book Whores and Highwaymen is available as an ebook and also to subscribers of Myilibrary and Dawsonera.
Printed by MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King’s Lynn.
Published 2012 by
Waterside Press Ltd.
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield on Loddon
Hook, Hampshire
United Kingdom RG27 0JG
Telephone [phone]
E-mail [e-mail]
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Contents
Copyright and Publication Details
Acknowledgements
Preface
About the Author
Dedication
Part One: Crime and the Metropolis INTRODUCTION
Terms of Reference
Sources of Information
Printed primary sources
Old Bailey Sessions Papers
Treatises and biographies
Historiography THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY METROPOLIS
Introduction
Metropolitan Government
The City
Southwark
Westminster and urban Middlesex
Expansion of the Conurbation
Population Growth
Mortality
Inward Migration
Responses to the Indigent
Rise of the Middle Class
Social Segregation
Decline in Communitarianism
Power
The Urban Day
Urban street lighting
Alcohol Consumption METROPOLITAN CRIME
Definitions of Crime
Legal Classification of Crimes
Treason
Felony
Benefit of clergy
Unclergyable forms of theft
Rationale for clergy
Petty theft
Misdemeanours
Crime Rates and Patterns
Lethal Violence
Non-Lethal Violence
Assault and the Law
The Incidence of Property Crime
Female participation in crime
Juvenile participation in crime
Juveniles and the law
The Metropolis and its Environs
Professional Crime
White Collar Crime ATTITUDES TOWARDS CRIME AND POLICING
Concern about Metropolitan Crime
Legitimacy and the Criminal Law
Reform Movements
Reformation societies EXPLANATIONS FOR METROPOLITAN CRIME
Introduction
Immorality
Structural Determinants
Need and Greed
Opportunity to Offend
The Effects of War on Crime
Receivers
Pawnbrokers CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE
Introduction
Lack of Informal Controls
Ease of Access to the Law
Criminal Procedure
Attrition
The Growth of Legalism
Metropolitan Lawyers
Popular Legal Knowledge
The Impact of Legalism
The Role of Discretion
Sodomy and discretion
Limits to discretion
Reluctance to Reform
Part Two: Policing POLICING THE METROPOLIS
Introduction
Reformers
The Concept of a “Police”
Other Parts of the British Isles
The Medieval Policing Legacy
Problems with Policing
Validity of Criticism
Paris and Continental Cities
The “Professional” Police of the 1700s
Police and the Political Nation
Anonymity of Parish Officers
Fragmentation of Policing
Exceptions
Amelioration
Proposals for Reform CONSTABLES
Introduction
Appointment of Constables in Middlesex and Westminster
Appointment of Constables in the City
Qualifications and Qualities
Unpopularity of the Office
Substitutes
Quality of substitutes
Conflicting Pressures on Constables
Operation
Constable of the Night
Control of Constables
Constables and Corruption
Reforming Constables
Powers of Arrest
Professional Knowledge
Fear of Litigation
Fear of Physical Attack
Auxiliaries
High Constables
Overnight Detention THE WATCH
Introduction
Funding of the Watch
Supernumerary Watchmen
Legal Powers
Supervision
Watch-houses
Organization of the Watch
The City
Westminster and Middlesex
The Poorer Parishes
Remuneration
Operation of the Watch
Going On Duty
Stop and Search
Summoning Assistance from the Watch
Proactive Watchmen
Inter-Watch Communication
Weapons and the Watch
Effectiveness
Low Personal Quality of Watchmen
Corruption Amongst the Watch
Pusillanimous
Discipline Amongst the Watch
Deterrent Value of Watchmen
The Patroles BEADLES, CITY MARSHALS AND THE MILITARY
Beadles
City Marshals and Marshalmen
The Military POST-CRIME DETECTION
Introduction
Personal Detection
Justices and Detection
Rewards and Thief-Takers
Scandals
Concern about Rewards
Lawyers and Rewards
Accomplice Evidence
Concern about the accomplice system
The Coroner’s Investigation
Effectiveness
Reporting Suspicious Deaths
The Coroner’s Jury
The Inquest
Operation
Mr Fielding’s Men
Conclusion THE METROPOLITAN MAGISTRACY
Introduction
Selection and Service
The Amateur Tradition
Justices’ Clerks
The Magistrates’ Work
Ubiquity of JPs
The Men Appointed as Justices
Clerical Magistrates
The City of London
Middlesex and Westminster
Trading Justices
Control of Justices
Non-Trading Justices
Continuing Problems
The Court Justice
The Middlesex Justices Act of 1792
From Houses to Courts
Part Three: Justice THE MAGISTRATES’ WORK
Interlocutory Proceedings
Arrest Warrants
Search Warrants
Legal Advice
The Examination
Confessions
Depositions
Recognisances to Prosecute
Committal
Re-examinations
Bail
Conditions on Remand OPTIONS FOR PROSECUTION
Introduction
Misdemeanour Indictments
Prosecution by Recognisance
Summary Conviction
Evidential requirements
Fairness
The “Bloodless Code”
Appeals from Summary Convictions
Petty Sessions
Committal to a Bridewell/House of Correction
Use against felons
Restraint in its use
Legal concerns
Mediation and Arbitration A PRIVATE SYSTEM OF PROSECUTION?
Introduction
The Appeal of Murder
Prosecution on Indictment
Reluctance to Prosecute
Public Prosecution
Exceptions to the Private Prosecution Model
Private Arrangements between Felon and Victim
Compounding
Revenge, Blackmail and Extortion
Rewards and Accomplice Evidence
Rewards
Influence of rewards
Criticism of rewards TRIAL ON INDICTMENT
Introduction
Fairness
The Standard of Proof
Conviction Rates
Directed Acquittals
Jury Acquittals
Insanity
Popular Notions of Responsibility
Dislike of Circumstantial Evidence
Jury Deliberations
Jury Independence
Evidential Rules
Hearsay
Bad character evidence
Expert opinion evidence
Forensic Atmosphere
Courts and Procedure
Quarter Sessions
The Court of King’s Bench
Drawing Up Indictments
The Grand Jury
Production from Prison
The Old Bailey Sessions
Trial Listing
Arraignment and Plea
The Peine Forte et Dure
Rarity of Guilty Pleas
Witnesses
Brevity of Trials
Orality
Credibility
The Oath
Character Witnesses
Returning Verdicts
Special verdicts
Sentencing
Pleading the Belly
Benefit of Clergy
Appeals Against Conviction
Change during the Course of the Century
Juries
The Presence of Lawyers
Pious Perjury THE METROPOLITAN PENAL REGIME
Introduction
Rationale for Punishment
Decline in Draconian Example
Capital Punishment
Proto-abolitionism
The mechanics of execution
At the scaffold
Reprieves
Petitions for reprieve
Conditional reprieves
Incidence of reprieves
Transportation
Origins of penal transportation
The Transportation Act 1718
Australia
Corporal and Shaming Punishments
The pillory and stocks
Flogging
Fiscal Penalties
Imprisonment
Bridewells and houses of correction
Prison conditions
Dangers of prison life
Lack of segregation
Rich inmates
Poor inmates
Structural determinants CONCLUSION
Crime
The Criminal Justice System
Change
Last Words
Illustrations
Bibliography
Index
A selection of legal history titles from the Waterside Press list
Preface
Many aspects of Metropolitan crime, justice and policing in the eighteenth century have been the subjects of intense research over the past 30 years. Numerous distinguished scholars have addressed their minds to, inter alia , the incidence and nature of offending, law enforcement, trial procedure and punishment in the London area. However, the resulting monographs and articles have often been chronologically, institutionally, or geographically confined. For example, the City of London has frequently been studied in isolation from Westminster and urban Middlesex, and vice-versa, even though they constituted a single conurbation, unprecedented in size, throughout the century. Additionally, all of these built-up areas have been considered separately from their immediate hinterland, although rural and suburban Middlesex was hugely influenced by its proximity to the Metropolis, and its crime and law enforcement problems were closely linked to that area.
Similarly, the work of the Old Bailey Court has frequently been scrutinised without reference to that of the Metropolis’s various Quarter Sessions, let alone the summary jurisdiction of the area’s many magistrates and, again, vice-versa, providing a distorted image of Metropolitan crime and justice, whether by focusing excessively on serious but unusual crimes, subject to draconian punishment, or by dwelling on minor offences that were frequently resolved informally. N