Fields, Fens and Felonies: Crime and Justice in Eighteenth-Century East Anglia

A new work on Crime and Punishment in East Anglia (and other parts of Britain) during the eighteenth century. It was a time of highwaymen, footpads and desperate petty offenders accompanied by draconian penalties, extremes of wealth and poverty, corruption, developing laws, and rough and emerging forms of justice—often at a price.

The contents include justices of the peace, policing, crimes, courts and judicial personnel as well as such matters as summary trial and disposal, jury trial, execution (and reprieve), a variety of offences including murder (or other homicides), violence and sexual offences, smuggling, poaching, property crimes, riots and disturbances. It also looks at the various hierarchies that existed whether social, legal, judicial, religious, military or otherwise so as to exert a variety of social controls at a time of relative lawlessness.

A fascinating and statistically absorbing account of crimes, responses and penal outcomes of the era. Neither a micro-history in the context of a parish, hundred, or small town nor national account, but a more unusual criminal-justice history of a major English region with its own correlation with London and the rest of England in addition to its local differences and ‘quirks’.

By an acknowledged expert Fields, Fens and Felonies is a captivating social record, a colourful account that informs and entertains. Thoroughly researched, referenced and indexed.