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The Law Of The Land
I always enjoy Alan Crosby’s column (page 13). His informative articles remind family historians of the importance of relating our ancestors to the world in which they lived.
His column in the Summer issue was no exception, but I fear that he may have left readers with the impression that posses and ‘hue and cry’ were not legal by describing them as “the custom of the county” of Lancashire. Not so.
The 13th-century Lancastrians may well have been exceeding their powers, but hue and cry was legally established nationwide, dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, its procedures enshrined in a law promulgated by Cnut the Great in the early 11th century. Men of the ‘hundred’ – an ancient administrative area surviving into the 19th century – not only had the right but the obligation to chase after a thief or other criminal and arrest them. If they resisted arrest, this was taken as proof of guilt and they could be instantly and legally killed, similarly if they were caught red-handed with the loot. If there was no conclusive evidence of guilt then they would be arrested and eventually brought to trial by the king’s justices, usually after the case was investigated in the local manorial court.
Legal killing on the spot was certainly summary justice and the punishment extreme to our way of thinking, but it shouldn’t be “beyond our comprehension”, to use Alan’s phrase. In a period or a place where the rule of law was not generally accepted, such as the Wild West with its sheriff’s posses, summary justice was an effective means of establishing law and order. The principle and the practice remain to this day, fortunately with much milder punishments. Anyone caught speeding or overstaying their time in a supermarket car park gets a penalty notice. Of course, we don’t need police cars or all of the shoppers in the supermarket to chase after us, but speed cameras and car-park attendants are the legal heirs of the hue and cry.
Derek Turner, Bedford
EDITOR REPLIES I’m glad you enjoy Alan’s column Derek, and thank you for the fascinating background to hue and cry. I will never look at car-park attendants in the same way again!
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I was fascinated to read Margaret Smith’s ‘Reader Story’ in the August issue. There are plenty of useful tips and information in the article which should help my investigations a lot.
I have been researching my granddau
