The duty of the respective officers appointed by the court leet, in The Manor of Birmingham.
Birmingham.
Printed by E. Piercy, 1789.
8vo.
8pp. Original publisher's grey wrappers, printed paper lettering-piece to upper wrapper. Presentation copy, inked inscription to recto of FFEP: 'To John Henry Lewis / with the printers / kind thoughts./ 27.8.43 / ie from W. T. Wiggins-Davies'.
A facsimile reprint, published in 1941, of the first edition of a late eighteenth-century account of the practice, roles and responsibilities of one of the later surviving vestiges of medieval English legal administration: the 'Court Leet, or View of Frank Pledge', with powers vested in the then lady of the manor 'the Right Honourable Sarah Lady Archer' (1741-1801).
By the late eighteenth-century Birmingham was a thriving marketplace; the existence of the Court Leet, and that it was - in the words of local historian William West - 'unfettered by chartered laws' provided 'numberless advantages to strangers, as well as to the inhabitants, in the independent feelings of religion, politics, trade, and a variety of objects which few towns, of equal magnitude, can boast of'. The court and its various officers therefore held, as this work explains, the legal responsibilities for protecting the standards of food ('to see that all Butchers, Fishmongers, Poulterers, Bakers and others, Sellers of Victuals, do not sell or expose to Sale within this Manor, any unwholesome, corrupt, or contagious Flesh, Fish, or other Victuals'), liquor, and holding 'Alehouse-keepers' to account for any 'unlawful Tipling or Gaming in their Houses by Apprentices or others'. Two leather sealers were also responsible for ensuring that 'all Tanned Leather brought to Market...is thoroughly tanned and dryed; and if it is, they are to Seal the same'.
£ 50.00
Antiquates Ref: 31730
By the late eighteenth-century Birmingham was a thriving marketplace; the existence of the Court Leet, and that it was - in the words of local historian William West - 'unfettered by chartered laws' provided 'numberless advantages to strangers, as well as to the inhabitants, in the independent feelings of religion, politics, trade, and a variety of objects which few towns, of equal magnitude, can boast of'. The court and its various officers therefore held, as this work explains, the legal responsibilities for protecting the standards of food ('to see that all Butchers, Fishmongers, Poulterers, Bakers and others, Sellers of Victuals, do not sell or expose to Sale within this Manor, any unwholesome, corrupt, or contagious Flesh, Fish, or other Victuals'), liquor, and holding 'Alehouse-keepers' to account for any 'unlawful Tipling or Gaming in their Houses by Apprentices or others'. Two leather sealers were also responsible for ensuring that 'all Tanned Leather brought to Market...is thoroughly tanned and dryed; and if it is, they are to Seal the same'.
