Laboring-class Women's and Men's Roles in Crim. Con. Trials

2019

This article examines the role of gender in the testimony, character and credibility of the plaintiffs and defendants in rape trials in early modern England. I will argue that the emerging eighteenth-century culture of sensibility did not contribute to increased rulings in favor of women in rape trials as women’s perceived sexual character was used as a proxy for their moral character and was weaponized as evidence against them in rape trials. To do this, I will draw from feminist philosopher Miranda Fricker’s work on testimonial injustice. Testimonial injustice “occurs when a speaker is given less credibility than deserved [...] because of an identity prejudice held by the hearer.” I argue that early modern England rape trials exemplify testimonial injustices as they indicate that women’s testimonies were not afforded equal weight, and suffered less favorable legal outcomes due to the particularly gendered and circumstantial natures of the crime. These trials deserve historiographi...

American Journal of Legal History

This article analyses and compares the defences, verdicts and punishments of both men and women tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of their spouses or commonlaw partners from 1674 to 1790, a period that witnessed the gradual if ultimately momentous 'lawyerisation' of criminal trial. The vast majority of these cases continued, however, to resemble 'sentencing hearings', focusing less on an adversarial contest over guilt or innocence than on mitigating circumstances and the character of defendants, witnesses and victims. While an emerging eighteenth-century culture of sensibility contributed to a decriminalisation of female passion and sexuality, these trials also testify to the continuity and vitality of a discretionary regime and more resilient assumptions about gender and class. In marked contrast with the handful of sensational murder trials that generated media attention and outrage and tended to end in execution, a large proportion of these more pedestrian and representative cases of domestic homicide-particularly women accused of murdering husbands after 1740-ended in acquittal or manslaughter verdicts, especially in cases where provocation could be established. This study suggests that this relative lenience speaks less to the compassion accorded to defendants than a lack of sympathetic identification with their largely working-class victims, especially those of perceived bad character.

2014

Medieval Feminist Forum, 2010

Voices in the Legal Archives in the French Colonial Year, 2020

In 1750, Françoise Laurent, a housemaid barely 20 years of age appeared in court, accused of stealing from her mistress. 2 Among the stolen items were promissory notes, clothes and a wig to hide her shaved head, a treatment she had received at the Jericho wing of the General Hospital of Montreal, where women of ill-repute were kept, and from which she had been discharged before being employed by the Pommereau family. This case was actually among several that would rouse the ire of Intendant Bigot, the king's representative in New France, who had reprimanded Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, founder of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, for having overstepped her authority by gathering common women and shaving their heads without authorization (only the Intendant had such authority). 3 Françoise escaped hanging, first by claiming she was pregnant and then, as a last resort, by marrying Quebec's newly appointed hangman, Jean Corollaire, who was barely older than she, on 19 August 1751, 4 This case highlights several aspects of the power relations between the sexes in several intersecting fields of history: the tense relationship between politics and religion (intendant of the colony vs Mother Superior of the Grey Nuns-secular morals vs religious morals), relationships between social classes (mistress vs housemaid), economic relationships (the housemaid claimed that she had purchased the wig with her own earnings, and sexual identity (a woman with a shaved head vs a society that stigmatized her by denying her femininity). Above all, however, the fact that a woman (Françoise Nafrechou, "épouse du sieur Paumereau") 5 formally accused another woman of stealing, the content of the testimonies, as well as the strategies the accused resorted to in order to avoid the gallows, reveal the contours of a feminine judicial culture at a time when the Custom of Paris limited women's legal capacity to act, especially wives and minors.

Studia Iuridica Lublinensia, 2021

In ancient Rome, slaves performed many different tasks. The fact that they often enjoyed the trust of their owners and knew their secrets made them very desirable witnesses in a criminal trial. The aim of the article is to show examples of situations in which the testimony of slaves in a criminal trial could be dangerous for their owners. Slaves were subject to obligatory torture, so they could reveal some secrets against their will. However, there was a ban on the use of slaves’ testimonies against their owners. Roman law, still, knew a few exceptions to this, in matters justified by the interests of Rome. The article shows also the changes made during the Principate, when the statutory law regulating this issue appeared.

On 20 June 1530, John Laurence, former servant to a London widow named Lucy Lacey, and Robert Turner, a Lancashire man, made a confession regarding their parts in a heinous crime committed about two months before. In late April of the same year, the two men and two other confederates had conspired to rob Mistress Lacey's house and had callously killed her maidservant in the process. The two men admitted their roles in the felony under examination at Cardinal Wolsey's residence at the manor of Southwell, Nottinghamshire. As those who examined Laurence and Turner no doubt knew, Mistress Lacey was a widow of advanced years-perhaps as old as eighty-and the attack upon her, not to mention the cruel slaying of her maidservant, was an especially heinous crime.

Gilbert and Sullivan's second collaboration, has received less critical attention than it merits due to its short running time of approximately forty-five minutes and the fact that it was not performed as part of the historic Savoy operas 1881-1896. 1 Through analysis of the libretto and musical examples, this essay will demonstrate how Gilbert and Sullivan manipulate the performance of femininity to satirise the breach of promise of marriage doctrine. Firstly, it will consider the social context of the breach of promise of marriage in the 1870s, and demonstrate that though progressive in its attitude of implementing protection for women from poverty, the practice of this area of law reinforced the 'restrictive definition of femininity [that] had achieved dominance by this time'. 2 The essay will explore how Angelina's femininity is portrayed in 'Trial by Jury'. It will consider the idea that the male reaction towards Angelina's femininity seeks to undermine the procedures of law. It will ultimately conclude that by exposing the absurdity of the behaviour of the judge and jury, Gilbert and Sullivan challenge the discriminatory basis of the breach of promise of marriage case. Set in a courtroom, the plot follows Angelina (soprano) who is suing Edwin (tenor) for breach of promise of marriage. During the process of reaching a verdict, the judge (baritone) and jury (male chorus) attempt to be impartial towards the plaintiff, who is introduced by the female chorus of bridesmaids. However, they cannot help but be influenced by Angelina's beauty, youth and 'theatrical performance of feminine virtue' 3. Edwin suggests that he will marry both Angelina and his new lover, which is considered by the judge as 'a reasonable proposition'. After it is concluded that 1 STEINBACH, S. From Redress to Farce: Breach of Promise Theatre in

Women, Agency and the Law, 1300-1700, 2013

Law and History Review, 2019

Common law was an all-male system, with one glaring exception: juries of matrons. If a convicted felon requested a reprieve from execution on the grounds of pregnancy, it was the responsibility of a group of twelve matrons to perform an inspection in order to determine if she was in fact pregnant. Matrons were in a position of great authority. Their verdicts were definitive: if they decided a woman was pregnant, then she was sent back to prison. Despite the significance of their role, little is known about medieval matrons and what qualified them to sit on a jury. Were they mothers? Honorable wives? Midwives? The goal of this paper is to argue that matrons had training in obstetrics. This was particularly important for medieval matrons because the quickening (that is ensoulment, signaled by the first fetal movements) did not become the focal point of the matrons' assessment until at least 1348. Before this, the diagnosis was much more medically challenging as matrons had to determine whether a felon had conceived. Overall, the medieval records demonstrate great confidence in medieval matrons and their obstetrical expertise.