Preface

Summary

The publication in this volume of two rolls of the Bedfordshire justices of the peace by the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society marks the completion of a task begun by the late Bertha H. Putnam. With the exception of a roll for Buckinghamshire too illegible to be transcribed, all the records of justices of the peace for counties discovered by Miss Putnam are now in print in full or by excerpt. Although Miss Putnam published selected cases from the earlier and longer of the Bedfordshire rolls in Proceedings before the Justices of the Peace in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (London, 1938) and used material from the second roll in her discussion of the work of the justices in this same volume, the decision of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society to print the two rolls in full is a happy one. As will appear, each provides information on the work of the justices which supports that provided in the records for other counties already in print. Also by this means the corpus of available peace rolls is augmented.

To the officials of the Public Record Office, both those in the Round Room and those who appear when needed, I can never adequately express my thanks. I wish also to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the Firestone Library of Princeton University. My dependence on Miss Putnam’s work on the justices of the peace is apparent throughout.