The Reform of the Laws of England, 1640–1660
- The Reform of the Laws of England, 1640–1660
A graduate of the University, and Assistant Professor of History in the State University of Iowa, has written The Treaty of Washington, 1871: A Study in Imperial History (1941).
Footnotes
1. William Cole, “A Rod for the Lawyers: Who are hereby declared to be the Grand Robbers and Deceivers of the Nation” (July 12, 1659) (Harleian Miscellany, 1808, IV, p. 319). The day of the month, here and elsewhere, is that recorded by Thomason on his copy in the British Museum. See also G. P. Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1927), Appendix B; R. Robinson, “Anticipation under the Commonwealth of Changes in the Law” (Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, ed. E. Freund, W. E. Mikell, et al., Boston, 1907–9).
2. For examples see: the reports of the Putney and Whitehall Debates and other documents in Puritanism and Liberty, ed. A. S. P. Woodhouse (London, 1938); the Works of Gerrard WinStanley, ed. George H. Sabine (Ithaca, N.Y., 1940); David W. Petegorsky, Left Wing Democracy in the English Civil War (London, 1940).
3. John Warr, “The Corruption and Deficiency of the Laws of England” (1649) (Harleian Miscellany, III, p. 250).
4. John Hare, Plain English, (Nov. 4, 1647).
5. The Law’s Discovery by “a Well-Wisher to His Country” (June 27, 1653).
6. Samuel Chidley, “A Cry against a Crying Sin” (April 14, 1652) (Harleian Miscellany, VIII, p. 477).
7. John Hedworth, “An Oppressed Man’s Outcry” (1649) (Harleian Miscellany, V, p. 612). Cf. Henry Robinson, Certain Proposals in Order to a New Modelling of the Laws (1653).
8. William Corey, “The Present State of England” (Harleian Miscellany, III, p. 210). Cf. F. A. Inderwick, The Interregnum, 1648–1660 (London, 1891), p. 222.
9. E. Ludlow, Memoirs, ed. C. H. Firth (Oxford, 1894), I, p. 275.
10. Experimental Essay Touching the Reformation of the Laws of England (Aug. 17, 1648).
11. E. Ludlow, Memoirs, I, p. 279.
12. H. Parker, “A Word to the Army” (Oct. 24, 1647) (Harleian Miscellany, IV, p. 325).
13. W. Sheppard, England’s Balme (Oct. 25, 1656) (cited in W. Holdsworth, History of English Law, VI, p. 421).
14. WinstanIey to Lord Fairfax (1649) (Harleian Miscellany, VIII, p. 590). Cf. H. Parker, Observations (1642) (Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolutions, 1638–1647, ed. W. Haller, New York, 1934, II, p. 168); T. C. Pease, The Leveller Movement (Washington, 1916), p. 132; Henry Marten, Vox Plebis (Nov. 19, 1646); John Cook, The Vindication of the Professors and the Profession of the Law (Feb. 16, 1646).
15. Hugh Peters, Good Work for a Good Magistrate or a Short Cut to Great Quiet (1651). Peters’s proposal to destroy the whole system of English law aroused the anger of R. V. of Gray’s Inn, who replied to Peters in A Plea for the Common Laws of England (1651).
16. Harleian Miscellany, VIII, p. 592.
17. Samuel Chidley, op. cit. Cf. W. Harris, An Historical and Critical Account of Hugh Peters (1751). The writer has used the reprint of George Smeeton, first published in 1818 and later included in Smeeton’s Historical and Biographical Tracts, II (London, 1821).
18. John Hare, England’s Proper and Only Way (Jan. 24, 1648).
19. John Hare, “Anti-Normanism, or St. Edward’s Ghost” (Aug. 17, 1647) (Harleian Miscellany, VI, p. 72).
20. Roger Cope, “A Detection of the Court and State of England” (Clarke Papers, Camden Society, IV, p. 364).
21. Whitelbcke, Memorials of English Affairs, I, p. S21. Cf. W. Harris, op. cit., p. 19, in G. Smeeton, Historical and Biographical Tracts.
22. H. Ferne, Conscience Satisfied (April 18, 1643), p. 35. Cf. R. Wiseman, Law of Laws (Oct. 29, 1656); George Fox, The Law of God (Nov. 12, 1654).
23. E. Ludlow, op. cit., I, p. 333. Cf. W. Harris, op. cit., p. 20: “No great matter followed from this Committee by reason of chc hurry of the times, and the opposition which the lawyers made co it.”
24. The Law’s Discovery, Proposal xvi. Cf. supra, n. 5.
25. Cf. Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum...
