17TH CENTURY "CRIME”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 29

17TH CENTURY "CRIME”

CURIOUS RECORDS OF COUNTY COURT COMPULSORY CHURCH Interesting sidelights on offences which constituted breaches of the law between the years 1619 and 1657 are thrown by the “Hertfordshire County Records, Vo. V.,” compiled by Sir Charles E. Lougmore, clerk of the peace, Hertford, says an English exchange. This era was of great importance to the religious, economic and social history of England, the period of the decline of the Stuart dynasty, the Civil Wars, and the establishment of the Commonwealth. The offence of constructing a cottage “without four acres of land being layed thereto” was a common one. The law required plenty of fresh air and space for the labourer. Discussions on religion were not the thing in those days. People went to \ church regularly or the magistrates j wanted to know the reason. That was i why “Wm. Jorden, now aged sixteen ' years,” found himself in court “for ab- j seating himself from Divine service for j three months.” Wm. Jorden was not ] alone in this fault. Hundreds of people j tried to dodge church-going, and found themselves in the Sessions House in- i stead.' Some good church-goers disagreed with the doctrines preached, and they, too, went before the magistrate. John Gould attended church at Ware like a good citizen, but “disturbed the minister.” He was sentenced to receive “due correction” —physical probably rather than spiritual—and in addition “to do hard labour for a month.” Robert Burrell, of Hunsdon, and a number of others who “disturbed the minister,” found that it did not pay. Men who were emphatic of speech and loved a little swear word now and then had to be careful. John Allen, of Anstey, a husbandman, was a particularly careless, if eloquent, person. One day in January, 1657, he took the name of God in vain, and besides swore 20 blasphemous oaths. Somebody told, and the constable came for him. The “Dora” of those days, too, frowned on Sunday workers. One Sabbath there were a number of Hitchin men who felt that their whiskers needed clipping. They hied themselves to the abode of Cuthbert Peacock, the barber, and Cuthbert neatly put the scissors round their beards. Then Cuthbert was hailed before the magistrates on the charge of “trim ming.” Card Playing They loved the alehouse, too, the good country folk of the 17th century, and a game of cards—“coloured cards, ace, king, queen and the rest of them. It meant trouble. There were those who, even then, demanded Prayer-book revision. Henry Haslowe. of Ashwell, tailor, for in-, stance. Henry was so keen about it that he spoke “divers scandalous

words” to William Turner", the curate. Henry, criticising the Book of Common Prayer the administration of the sacraments, and other ceremonies, said “that the said Booke of Common Prayer (so established) was partly Gode’s booke and partly man's tradicion and hotch-potch, and if he (the curate) did bury the dead according to the same booke of Common Prayer, he could not answer the same.” William Turner, the curate, apparently made no attempt to answer. He promptly hailed Henry Haslowe, the tailor, before the Bench. People who carried on trades in the 17th century were expected to learn their work thoroughly. Robert Arnot, of Tring, who “exercised the art and mystery of a baker without having served an apprenticeship of seven years,” was one of the many who suffered the penalty of the law for the offence.