Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
- Preface
- Introduction
- Abbreviations
- CHAPTER I FAMILY AND ESTATES: History of the Shareshull family and of their landed estates, with special reference to the chief justice
- CHAPTER II PROFESSIONAL CAREER: Shareshull's elementary and legal education; his career as pleader and as judge; his appointments to common pleas, king's bench and exchequer, also to innumerable commissions, special and general
- CHAPTER III PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Shareshull's relations with the king on diplomatic missions and in parliament and council; his work on the private domains of the Black Prince
- CHAPTER IV LEGISLATION: Shareshull's part in framing ordinances and statutes, especially the legal and economic enactments of 1349-52
- CHAPTER V LAW ENFORCEMENT: Shareshull's policy of law enforcement, and of the imposition of huge financial penalties by means of commissions of oyer and terminer and of eyres, by the development of the justices of the peace and of the justices of labourers, and by a novel use of the king's bench
- CHAPTER VI STAFF AND EXPENSES: The enrolment and the preservation of proceedings before Shareshull; his group of trained clerks; arrangements for travelling and for transporting documents, for housing, food and clothing; annual stipends and daily fees
- CHAPTER VII SHARESHULL AND SHARDELOW: An account of the confusion between William Shareshull and his colleague John Shardelow; an attempt at disentangling them
- CHAPTER VIII LEGAL DOCTRINE:Shareshull's judicial pleadings and opinions: his legal thought in general, his learning, his doctrines of private law and of criminal law
- CHAPTER IX VINDICATION OF CHARACTER: Analysis of the charges against Shareshull and of the attitude of his contemporaries towards him; reasons for his retirement to a Franciscan convent
- CHAPTER X His PLACE IN HISTORY: An estimate of Shareshull's personality and of his significance for legal, economic and administrative history
- APPENDIXES
- NOTES
- List of statutes cited
- List of reports of cases cited
- Index
CHAPTER IX - VINDICATION OF CHARACTER: Analysis of the charges against Shareshull and of the attitude of his contemporaries towards him; reasons for his retirement to a Franciscan convent
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
- Preface
- Introduction
- Abbreviations
- CHAPTER I FAMILY AND ESTATES: History of the Shareshull family and of their landed estates, with special reference to the chief justice
- CHAPTER II PROFESSIONAL CAREER: Shareshull's elementary and legal education; his career as pleader and as judge; his appointments to common pleas, king's bench and exchequer, also to innumerable commissions, special and general
- CHAPTER III PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Shareshull's relations with the king on diplomatic missions and in parliament and council; his work on the private domains of the Black Prince
- CHAPTER IV LEGISLATION: Shareshull's part in framing ordinances and statutes, especially the legal and economic enactments of 1349-52
- CHAPTER V LAW ENFORCEMENT: Shareshull's policy of law enforcement, and of the imposition of huge financial penalties by means of commissions of oyer and terminer and of eyres, by the development of the justices of the peace and of the justices of labourers, and by a novel use of the king's bench
- CHAPTER VI STAFF AND EXPENSES: The enrolment and the preservation of proceedings before Shareshull; his group of trained clerks; arrangements for travelling and for transporting documents, for housing, food and clothing; annual stipends and daily fees
- CHAPTER VII SHARESHULL AND SHARDELOW: An account of the confusion between William Shareshull and his colleague John Shardelow; an attempt at disentangling them
- CHAPTER VIII LEGAL DOCTRINE:Shareshull's judicial pleadings and opinions: his legal thought in general, his learning, his doctrines of private law and of criminal law
- CHAPTER IX VINDICATION OF CHARACTER: Analysis of the charges against Shareshull and of the attitude of his contemporaries towards him; reasons for his retirement to a Franciscan convent
- CHAPTER X His PLACE IN HISTORY: An estimate of Shareshull's personality and of his significance for legal, economic and administrative history
- APPENDIXES
- NOTES
- List of statutes cited
- List of reports of cases cited
- Index
Summary
Not the least surprising aspect of modern opinions about Shareshull is the fact that the writers of his native shire, although recognizing his political importance, do not express pride in him as a Staffordshire man or acclaim his services to king and prince. Instead, they join in denouncing him as a judge who did not ‘ bear a high character for integrity’ and who in an age notorious for judicial corruption was himself corrupt and like other chief justices made a large fortune by the abuse of justice. So serious are these charges that it is essential to try to discover the evidence on which they are based.
The first accusation to be considered is that Shareshull's dismissal, in April 1333, of an assize against the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, on the ground of the omission of an ‘n’ in ‘Cannokbury’, was probably due to his acceptance of a bribe from the bishop. But the inference that in a period of great diversity in the spelling of names Shareshull's decision could not have been bona fide, ignores the circumstance that at this date he was still a serjeant-at-law, accustomed to taking advantage of technical errors. Excessive formalism is certainly no proof of bribery.
The next attack to be noted, curiously enough, omits the events of 1340 and maintains that Shareshull in 1353, as chief justice, instigated criminal proceedings—the ‘odious’ appeal—against Sir Hugh de Wrottesley of Shropshire and Staffordshire, accused of the murder of Philip de Lutteley. The ‘ rapidity of the process’ in contrast to the usual medieval dilatoriness—so runs the argument—proves that Shareshull, whose daughter Elizabeth had recently married John de Perton the younger, a nephew of Lutteley, was actuated by the ‘irresistible’ desire of adding to his manor of Patshull the neighbouring Wrottesley estates. Sir Hugh's deeds of violence furnish the best rebuttal of these assertions.
An assault by Sir Hugh, his brother and his son, and fourteen others, on John de Perton the elder at Tettenhall, Staffordshire, had led to the issue on 7 October 1337, at Perton's request, of a commission of oyer and terminer to Shareshull, Swynnerton and Hillary.
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- The Place in Legal History of Sir William ShareshullChief Justice of the King's Bench 1350–1361, pp. 135 - 150Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013