56 George E. Hozvard, 



ary to reserve such cases for the assizes ; ^ but the jurisdic- 

 tion of the sessions in capital crimes was not abrogated by 

 law until the present century.^ However, the court found 

 plenty of employment in the punishment of a vast number 

 of offences, ranging from petty theft and minor breaches of 

 the peace to recusancy and non-conformity. In the seven- 

 teenth century "Seminaries,"^ Quakers, and similar offend- 

 ers, were continually before it ; ^ and the execution of the 

 laws against rogues, vagabonds,^ drunkenness, and disorderly 

 houses was enjoined by the government as a matter of the 

 first importance.*^ 



Favorite punishments were flogging, branding, the stocks, 

 and the pillory ; " while other more curious methods were the 



it may be supposed that most of them were young, if a similar ratio prevailed in 

 other countries, the numbers executed must have seriously affected the increase of 

 the population": Quarter Sessioiis, 30-31. See also Stephen, Hist, of Critn, 

 Law, I, 467 ff. During the ten years between 6 and 15 James I, 704 persons 

 were hanged in Middlesex (London) : JeafTreson, Middlesex County Records, II, 

 xvii. 



1 But the death penalty was sometimes imposed. In the reign of James I, 

 great numbers of persons were condemned premi ad mortem, the ancient peine 

 forte et dure, for refusing to plead. Thus, in the county of Middlesex, from 6 to 



15 James I, that is, during ten years, 32 persons were pressed to death : Jeaffreson, 

 Middlesex County Records,Yl.,yi.V\\\. Cf. /^., I, xxxii; II, xvii-xxii; III, xvii-xxiii; 

 and Hamilton, Quarter Sessioiis, 83. 



2 By 5 and 6 Victoria, c. 38, 1842, which deprived the quarter sessions of the 

 power to try cases of murder, treason, capital felonies, felonies punishable by 

 transportation for life, and eighteen specified offences. Cf. Gneist, II, 369; 

 Stephen, Hist, of Crim. Law, I, 1 14 f. At present they cannot try capital crimes, 

 crimes for which a person not previously convicted may suffer penal servitude for 

 life, perjury, forgery, libel, and some other offences : Maitland, Justice and 

 Police, 85-86. ^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 2-3, 74 ff. 



* On the punishment of these offences, much interesting matter will be found 

 in Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 2-3, 27 f., 74 f., 81, 121, 179 f., 195, 164 ff., 258, 

 295 (Quakers), etc.; Lambard, Eirenarcha, 410-420. Many examples are con- 

 tained in Jeaffreson's Middlesex Cotmty Records : see Index. 



'^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 15, 16, 17, 104, 247, 268, etc.; Lambard, 

 Eirenarcha, 442 ff. 



^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 69, 71-74, 102, 115. 



" " A favorite punishment for small offences, such as resisting a constable, was 

 the stocks. The offender had to come into church at morning prayer, and say 

 publicly that he was sorry, and was then set in the stocks until the end of evening 



290 



