Legal History Miscellany
@legalmiscellany.bsky.social
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Blogging on the history of law, crime, and justice at www.legalhistorymiscellany.com.
New post by
@drkdwatson.bsky.social
and Carolyn Strange: "Poisoning Crimes and the ‘Mushroom Murderer’: Patterns and Precedents"
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/09/23/p...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/09/23/poisoning-crimes-and-the-mushroom-murderer-patterns-and-precedents/
about 23 hours ago
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Sara M. Butler 🇨🇦
about 1 month ago
My new post is up! Butler, "Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England" (2025).
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/resisting-visitation-in-late-medieval-england/
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New post by
@sarabutler.bsky.social
: 'Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England':
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/r...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/08/14/resisting-visitation-in-late-medieval-england/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Krista Kesselring
2 months ago
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...
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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.
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/arresting-developments/
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'Arresting Developments': a new post, on the abuses and dangers of arrests in 17th and 18th-century England:
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/a...
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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.
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/07/14/arresting-developments/
2 months ago
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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...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/06/27/tackling-the-assault-deficit/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Daniel F Gosling
4 months ago
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...
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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...
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/r/C5372068
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Krista Kesselring
4 months ago
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...
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Call for papers: Crime and Conjugality in Europe, pre-1800
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/events/2025/event---call-for-papers-crime-and-conjugality-in-europe-pre-1800-.html
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A new post from
@sarabutler.bsky.social
: 'All Bastards Are Free?'
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/05/16/a...
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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), …
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/05/16/all-bastards-are-free-the-medieval-origins-of-the-common-law-rule/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Chloë Kennedy
5 months ago
Now available as a (potentially affordable) paperback
www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Brodie Waddell
5 months ago
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...
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Paulina Kewes
5 months ago
Never miss anything by
@kjkesselring.bsky.social
!
add a skeleton here at some point
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A new post, on the end of the infamous Court of Star Chamber and its afterlife:
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/t...
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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?
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/04/22/the-ends-of-a-lawless-court/
5 months ago
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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...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/03/30/investigating-the-assault-deficit/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Kiran Mehta
6 months ago
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
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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
https://newbooksnetwork.com/to-detain-or-to-punish
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Alice Taylor
6 months ago
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...
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The Journal of Legal History
Volume 46, Issue 1 of The Journal of Legal History
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/flgh20/46/1
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
The Statutes Project
6 months ago
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
🗃️
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Home | Laws of Enslavement and Freedom
https://slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca/
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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...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/03/12/shorthand-notations-from-george-trebys-middle-temple-notebooks/
7 months ago
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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...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/02/20/weird-and-wonderful-the-mixed-cultural-heritage-of-englands-common-law/
7 months ago
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Prof. Elaine Chalus
8 months ago
New digital resource: Rediscover the lost Court of King's Bench
#skystorians
🗃️
#c18th
kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org/?fbclid=IwY2...
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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.
https://kingsbench.engagedhumanities.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIR6m1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfhkQ1p-KcvqtN-PN8ajdgn0QljXFWTeU-uLnF6LG-eixNXIbFe9EH9EAg_aem_6vvVFQTrFu4TlJxcIEjVBg
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
Sara M. Butler 🇨🇦
9 months ago
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...
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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…
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/01/06/cruel-mercy-coronation-pardons-clemency-and-constraints/
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reposted by
Legal History Miscellany
🇨🇦 Katherine D. Watson 🇬🇧
9 months ago
For those unfamiliar with our shared blog, Legal History Miscellany,
legalhistorymiscellany.com
here is the first post of 2025!
add a skeleton here at some point
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you reached the end!!
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