Historic Mansions and Highways around Boston by Samuel Adams Drake

Author:Samuel Adams Drake [Drake, Samuel Adams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2018-01-24T23:00:00+00:00

"Oh! were I provost o' the town,

I swear by a' the powers aboon,

I'd bring ye wi' a reesle down;

Nor should you think

(So sair I'd crack and clour your crown)

Again to clink."

The old Court House, which has been named in connection with the Henley trial, stood at first bodily within the Square, but was later removed to the site of the present Lyceum building, and perhaps is even now existing in its rear, where it is utilized for workshops. It was built in 1756, and continued to be used by the courts until the proprietors of Lechmere Point obtained their removal to that location by the offer of a large bonus. The old wooden jail stood at the southwest corner of the Square, and was but little used for the detention of criminals after the erection of the stone jail at Concord in 1789.

The Court House witnessed the trials of many notable causes, and furnished the law-students of the University with a real theatre, of which they were in the habit of availing themselves.

As late as 1665 declarations and summonses were published by sound of trumpet. The crier opened the court in the king's name, and the judges and barristers in scarlet robes, gown, and wig, inspired the spectator with a wholesome sense of the majesty of the law. The usual form of a document was "To all Xtian people Greeting."

Under the first charter, or patent as it was usually called, the Governor and Assistants were the sole depositaries of all power, whether legislative, executive, or judicial. When the patent was silent the Scriptures were consulted as the proper guide.

The ministers and elders were, in all new exigencies, the expounders of the law, which was frequently made for the occasion and applied without hesitation. The cause of complaint was briefly stated, and there were no pleadings. Hutchinson says, that for more than the first ten years the parties spoke for themselves, sometimes assisted, if the cause was weighty, by a patron, or man of superior abilities, but without fee or reward. The jury — and this marks the simplicity of the times — were allowed by law, if not satisfied with the opinion of the court, "to consult any bystander." Such were the humble beginnings of our courts of law.

The following is extracted from the early laws of Massachusetts. "Everie marryed woeman shall be free from bodilie correction or stripes by her husband, unlesse it be in his owne defence upon her assalt.' If there be any just cause of correction complaint shall be made to Authoritie assembled in some court, from which ouely she shall receive it."

The common law of England authorized the infliction of chastisement on a wife with a reasonable instrument. It is related that Judge Buller, charging a jury in such a case, said, "Without undertaking to define exactly what a reasonable instrument is, I hold, gentlemen of the jury, that a stick no bigger than my thumb comes clearly within that description."

It is further reported that

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