Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Bedfordshire County Records, Vol. 2: Notes and Extracts From the County Records; Being a Calendar of Volume I of the Sessions Minute Books, 1651-1660
In presenting the second volume of the County Records the Committee has availed itself of the very valuable notes made during the examination of the Session Minutes Book by Mr. W. J. Hardy. The Committee has further to acknowledge Mr. Hardy's courtesy and generosity in preparing and presenting an index of the contents of the volume which largely increases the value of the work.
The reason which decided the Records Committee to print this portion as a separate issue is that therein is contained the proceedings of Quarter Sessions from 1651 to 1660, the earliest period covered by our County Records.
The volume does not reveal the prevalence of any very serious crime in the County. We find (p. 8) an indictment, in 1651, of three labourers, two of Bedford and one of Biddenham, for assault ing the gaoler at Bedford and hindering the execution of certain prisoners condemned to die but that is the only reference to the carrying out of capital punishment, and there are but few instances of cases coming before the magistrates in which a prisoner would have been committed on the capital charge. One of these is, however, curious, as it records the fact that at the Sessions held at Bedford on grd of October, 1653, the wife of a carpenter of Little Stoughton was sent for trial at the Assizes for feloniously bewitching William Holland.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
