Murder Act 1752
An Act of parliament of England and Wales to increase the horror of being executed for murder by expediting the process and denying the right to a decent burial.
Socage
A form of tenure under English feudal property law.
Sponging house
A sponging house was a place of temporary confinement for those arrested for non-payment of a debt.
Act of Uniformity 1558
The Act of Uniformity 1558 was one of the Acts of Parliament collectively known as the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. It introduced a Common Book of Prayer, and obliged everyone to attend their parish church every Sunday and on holy days.
Liber Poenitentialis
The Lieber potentialis is a set of 7th-century ecclesiastical laws applied to women – and only women – perfoming acts such as divination, raising storms, or murder by the use of magic.
Burning of women in England
Burning was a legal punishment imposed on women found guilty of high treason, petty treason or heresy. Over a period of several centuries, female convicts were publicly burnt at the stake, sometimes alive, for a range of activities including coining and mariticide.
Hogarth’s Act 1735
An Act of the Parliament of Great Britain to give copyright protections to the producers of engravings.
Keeping of dogs to hunt, etc. 1390
A statute passed during the reign of King Richard II to restrict the hunting of game to the wealthier members of society by forbidding the ownership of hunting dogs, ferrets etc. to anyone earning less than forty shillings a year.
Combination Acts
The Combination Acts were passed by the Tory government of William Pitt the Younger in response to its fear of unrest or revolution among the working classes. They banned workers from combining to form trade unions and prevented them from striking, calling for shorter hours or increased pay.
Locomotive Acts
The Locomotive Acts of 1861, 1865 and 1878 set the United Kingdom’s first speed limits for road-going vehicles; powered passenger vehicles were at the time known as light locomotives, as they were invariably powered by steam.