Crime & Punishment in Early Modern Britain (1500-1750) Context
Crime
Trials
The population increased rapidly from 2 – 7 million in 1500 – 1750. 90% of the population lived in villages and worked in agriculture. (See below for impact on crime). c. 1700 population starts move into towns = increase crime.
Rising population = higher food prices, competition for jobs/high unemployment = rising crime against property e.g. vagrancy. Vagrants wandered the countryside begging for food/money – blamed on laziness and drunkenness not poverty. Crime was worse in towns were detection was a problem – people knew each other less well.
Minor crime – manor courts and church courts. Serious crime – juries Witch trials – torture, examined for strange marks, swimming test. Tortured for evidence.
Religion very important: Heresy – holding a religion different to the King. Witchcraft – c. 3000 accused, mostly women age 50+
Policing
Women Mostly petty theft, pick pocketing. RECIEVED UNEQUAL TREATMENT: Murdering her husband = petty treason = burned at the stake not hanged. Nagging wives (scolds) were punished with the ducking stool, sometimes drowned. OFTEN VICTIMS BUT FOUND IT HARDER TO GET JUSTICE: regarded as less reliable witnesses than men. 90% accused of witchcraft – women.
C18th Highwaymen – Increased – horses, better roads, no banks. violent/polite, ‘gentlemen of the road’, treated like footballers/rock stars. Why? 2 fingers up to authority, folk heroes, courteous to ladies. Gangs of footpads – robbery on streets.
Individuals
Punishment
The Bloody Code
Mary Tudor (‘Bloody Mary’) – burned c. 300 Protestants as heretics. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up King James I & parliament 1606 Matthew Hopkins the ‘Witch Finder General’ (1640s). Dick Turpin highwayman, £200 price on his head, fled to York and captured/hanged.
Vagrants – regarded as lazy/criminal, whipped and branded through the ear, branded with ‘V’, executed for second offence. c. 1600 Poor Law - distinction made between ‘sturdy beggars’ (fit but lazy) & ‘impotent poor’ (old, disabled...) SB – whipped, returned to their parish and work in a house of correction. IP – given ‘poor relief’.
The Bloody Code was gradually introduced between1500 - 1750. The upper/middle classes enforced laws that protected their interests & property. Death penalty increasingly used with introduction of Black Act in 1723. BUT juries unwilling to convict – didn’t want people to hang. 1714 Transportation Act = more transportations – 7, 14 years, life.
Poaching –‘Game Act’ made illegal fishing/hunting = ‘need and greed’, poverty due to enclosure, ‘social crime’ not regarded as real crime. Poaching = capital offence under ‘Bloody Code’
Hue and Cry Posse Comitatus Constables Night Watchmen Thief-takers – brought suspects to court in return for a reward e.g. Jonathan Wild (Like Dog the Bounty Hunter!)
Smuggling – usually tea, tobacco, brandy (highly taxed) and silk. Coastal areas – everyone conspired to smuggle. Ended end C18th when tea tax was cut from 119% – 12%
Execution for serious crime e.g. heresy, witchcraft, treason. Hanging for minor crimes with introduction of the Black Act, 1723. Stocks and pillory used for petty crime – often proved fatal (throwing vegetables, stones and dead cats!) Prison – debtors or awaiting trial. 25% died of gaol fever.
Key dates
Key words
Change & continuity
1542 -1st laws against witchcraft. 1606 – Gunpowder Plot. 1714 – Transportation Act. 1723 – Black Act
Footpad Vagrant Bloody Code Thief-taker
Little change in law enforcement since Middle Ages except watchmen and thief-takers. Little change in punishment except increased use of death penalty.