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 X - His PLACE IN HISTORY: An estimate of Shareshull's personality and of his significance for legal, economic and administrative history
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
Although we know where Shareshull lived and where he died, what he wore and what he ate and drank, whom he married, what provisions he made for his children, who were his closest friends, what were his political affiliations, and how he spent the major part of his waking hours, and although through his precise words on many legal and other subjects, cited in year-book reports or used in his speeches in parliament, and through the details of his practical activities, we learn something of the character of his thinking, still we do not really know what manner of person he was. His genial, informal language to his colleagues in court, especially to his old associate Hillary, and the tone of the one private letter that has been identified—the letter to abbot Monyton of Glastonbury—tempt one to believe that Shareshull had a capacity for friendly, human relations. It is extraordinarily difficult to decide whether his cynical utterances in court on religion and his willingness to face the perils of excommunication portray his views more accurately than do the pious phrases in the above letter, or his gifts to ecclesiastical foundations. I feel sure that the description of him as ‘morose’ by an eighteenth-century writer and the allegation that he had no sense of humour are due to a complete misinterpretation of the Ipswich incident and that they are wide of the mark. But it is true that the great mass of material thus far found on Shareshull concerns his outward acts rather than his personal characteristics. Unfortunately outward acts do not necessarily reveal the inner man.
Some definite statements can be made, however, many of them negative. In spite of the accusations of recent Staffordshire historians, in certain instances possibly influenced by an unconscious class preiudice, no proof of Shareshull's alleged corruption has thus far been found. Even though a modern interpretation of their oath would forbid judges to take fees for their professional services, it is not fair to condemn Shareshull for accepting the fourteenth-century convention that justified arrangements like those entered into with the Knights Hospitallers or others.
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- Information
- The Place in Legal History of Sir William ShareshullChief Justice of the King's Bench 1350–1361, pp. 151 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013