Book contents
- History and the Law
- History and the Law
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A Beginning: ‘History’, by Stephen Dunn
- 1 Its Ziggy Shape
- 2 Law Troubles
- 3 Letters of the Law
- 4 The Worst of It
- 5 Who Owns Maria
- 6 Sisters in Law
- 7 Hating the Law
- 8 The Kind of Law a Historian Loved
- An Ending: Not a Story
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Letters of the Law
Everyday Uses of the Law at the Turn of the English Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2020
Book contents
- History and the Law
- History and the Law
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A Beginning: ‘History’, by Stephen Dunn
- 1 Its Ziggy Shape
- 2 Law Troubles
- 3 Letters of the Law
- 4 The Worst of It
- 5 Who Owns Maria
- 6 Sisters in Law
- 7 Hating the Law
- 8 The Kind of Law a Historian Loved
- An Ending: Not a Story
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Some ordinary working people at the turn of the nineteenth century appear to have had the knowledge and the means to employ an attorney to write a legally threatening letter to those who had offended them in some way, thus bypassing the ‘official’ legal channel of the local magistrate. Their law consciousness is explored by examining four specific cases of a purchased ‘lawyer’s letter’ and by the variety of jokes – terrifying comedy – they made about the law.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- History and the LawA Love Story, pp. 59 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020