King^s Peace and English Peace-Magistracy. 57 



peculiar products of the religious sentiment of the times, and 

 exactly identical with those administered by the contem- 

 porary county courts of New England. Thus culprits were 

 required to make confession at morning prayer or to stand in 

 the pillory with a paper on the hat inscribed with the name 

 of the offence.^ In like manner the moral and economic con- 

 ceptions of the age are revealed in the character of the crimes 

 which the magistrates were called upon to punish. Thus 

 there were frequent sentences for witchcraft,^ the use of love 

 charms,^ sabbath-breaking, swearing,* and for many acts now 

 regarded as sins or moral delinquencies lying wholly outside 

 the jurisdiction of the state. ^ So also the restraint of "en- 

 grossers," "regrators," and " forestallers " was the source of 

 constant anxiety.^ In Surrey "badgers," as these speculators 

 in provisions were called, seem to have been particularly 



prayer. The punishment was generally repeated on the next market-day. But 

 the most common of all punishments was whipping. At every Sessions and 

 Assizes there appears a long list of names to which the Clerk of the Peace 

 appended the word Jlagell, with a flourish at the end strongly suggestive of the 

 lash. This infliction was considered peculiarly appropriate, not only to rogues 

 and vagabonds, but also to women. ... In one case we find an order that a 

 woman be whipped until she confess the father of her child " : Hamilton, Quarter 

 Sessions, 31-32. Cf. II'., 160; and Thornton, T7i'o Centuries of Magistrates^ 

 Work in Surrey : Fort. Rev., May, 1889, pp. 696, 702, 710, etc. 



1 Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, ill, 113, 31-32. 



- //'., 220. See Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records, H, HI, for many ex- 

 amples. 



^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 86, 113. ■* li., 154-5- 



^ Id., 159 f. In the reign of James I, the justices of Devon committed four 

 men to prison for baptizing a mare. " In another place we have a similar 

 offence described at length. Michael Jeffrye was bound over, one surety in 200/., 

 and one in 100/., for naming a ' dogge ' John and sprinkling of water upon him, 

 and signing him with the sign of the cross, saying that it was in the name of the 

 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost " : li., 84. 



^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 91, 103. These terms are defined by Lambard, 

 Eirenarcka, 4^0-^1. "An Ingrosser, is hee that ingrosseth or getteth into his 

 hands by buying, contract, or promise taking (other then by demise, lease, or 

 graunt of land or tithe) any Corne growing in the field, or other Corne or Graine, 

 Butter, Cheese, Fish, or other dead victuall, within England, to the intent to sell 

 the same againe." A regrator is one who buys similar produce in a fair or market 

 and " selleth the same againe in any Faire or Market kept there, or within foure 

 miles thereof." A forestaller is a person who buys or contracts for any " Victuall 



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