Sexual offences in Earls Colne, 1500 - 1700

Abstract

This thesis surveys sexual offences recorded in the small Essex village of Earls Colne in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and is based on the microfiche collection titled Records of an English Village: Earls Colne 1400 - 1750. Since the commoner offences (fornication, bastardy and adultery) were most often prosecuted by the Anglican authorities through their own courts, rather than the secular courts, primary sources of information were the church court Act Books and registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, although other parish records and the Assize and Quarter Sessions rolls also yielded cases. The thesis ascertains which courts had jurisdiction over the range of offences, and considers the procedural methods and punishments employed by the courts (including compurgation, penance and excommunication) as well as the harsher penalties of death, imprisonment, whipping, branding, disfigurement and exile favoured by many influential Puritans. Popular attitudes to sexual offenders are also canvassed. What type of people were 'presented' or denounced to the church courts for punishment? Who reported them, and why? To what extent did Tudor and Stuart Poor Laws influence parish officers in their campaigns against immorality?