AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

The research of the past thirty or forty years has revealed the true importance of the justices of the peace in the growth of the government of England. Historians have therefore devoted a good deal of attention to the development of the office of these county magistrates; Miss Putnam and Dr. Kimba11 have dealt with the early part of their history, Mr. Beard has traced their evolution up to the reign of James I., and the Webbs have described the ascendancy of the squires in the 18th and 19th centuries. This study is an attempt to fill in a part, though only a part, of the gap that is thus left between 1603 and 1660. Exigencies of space and time have made it necessary for me to omit the Civil War and Commonwealth periods, as well as all reference to the odd and interesting position of the borough justices. [...]