Genealogical Encyclopedia of the Colonial Americas

Genealogical Encyclopedia of the Colonial Americas
Author: Christina K. Schaefer
Publisher: Genealogical Publishing Com
Total Pages: 846
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780806315768

Covers the period of colonial history from the beginning of European colonization in the Western Hemisphere up to the time of the American Revolution.

Of "good Laws" and "good Men"

Of
Author: William McEnery Offutt
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252021527

Of "Good Laws" and "Good Men" reveals how a Quaker minority in the Delaware Valley used the law to its own advantage yet maintained the legitimacy of its rule. William Offutt, Jr., places legal processes at the center of this region's social history. The new societies established there in the late 1600s did not rely on religious conformity, culture, or a simple majority to develop successfully, Offutt maintains. Rather, they succeeded because of the implementation of reforms that gave the expanding population faith in the legitimacy of legal processes introduced by a Quaker elite. Offutt's painstaking investigation of the records of more than 2,000 civil and 1,100 criminal cases in four county courts over a thirty-year period shows that Quakers - the "Good Men" - were disproportionately represented as justices, officers, and jurors in this system of "Good Laws" they had established, and that they fared better than did the rest of the population in dealing with it.

A Distant Heritage

A Distant Heritage
Author: Larry Eldridge
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1995-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814721958

After an exhaustive analysis of over 1,200 seditious speech cases in every colonial American court that existed before 1700, Eldridge (history, Widener U., Chester, Pennsylvania) refutes the common belief that Americans did not enjoy free speech until the 18th century. He traces the growing leniency during the 17th century, and attributes it to a combination of tumult and social development, which made people more willing to criticize authorities, and the authorities less able to prevent criticism. The index is superbly detailed. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania, Volume 1, 1682-1709

Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania, Volume 1, 1682-1709
Author: Craig W. Horle
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 904
Release: 2017-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1512817007

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

Troubled Experiment

Troubled Experiment
Author: Jack D. Marietta
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2006-09-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780812239553

Troubled Experiment exposes the difference between glowing reputation and grim reality of crime in early Pennsylvania. The plight of lawmakers and magistrates, and the sufferings of victims, women, children, and minorities take their places in this tragedy. The authors conclude that through this lens, we see the troubled future of America.

Records of the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Commonn Pleas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1684-1700.

Records of the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Commonn Pleas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1684-1700.
Author: The Colonial Society of Pennsylvania
Publisher: Southern Historical Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2019-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780893088637

By: The Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, Pub. 1943, Reprinted 2019, 454 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #0-89308-907-9. Bucks County was created in 1682 and was one of the first three counties created within the state. It is the parent county to Northampton and Lehigh counties. It sits in the Delaware Valley just north of Philadelphia in the Southeastern portion of the state boarding New Jersey. The court was held 4 times a year and heard such cases of assault, batteries, trespass, all breaches of the peace. They held authority of administration in intestate estates and orphans, granted license to build water grist mills, to taverns and ordinaries, and to build and maintain public ferries. The court also appointed Constables and Overseers of Roads, and named the men who lived within the bounds to keep them in repair., as well as imposing taxes for roads, courthouses and goals, appointed all county officers, civil and military, all lists of Jurors and probates of Wills. These records are extremely valuable for the researcher, especially if an ancestor died intestate (without a will), and in some instances a person may be listed in these court records and nowhere else in the county records

Records of the Courts of Sussex County, Delaware, Volume 1

Records of the Courts of Sussex County, Delaware, Volume 1
Author: Craig W. Horle
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 688
Release: 2017-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1512816981

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.