Our Legal Heritage | Page 4

cases.
For clarity and easy comparison, amounts of money expressed in
pounds or marks have been converted to the smaller denominations of
shillings and pence. There are twenty shillings in a pound. A mark in
silver is two thirds of a pound.

The sources and reference books from which information was obtained
are listed in the bibliography instead of being contained in tedious
footnotes.

Dedication
A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her
students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier. This
book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of Vassar College,
without whom it would never have been written.

Table of Contents
Chapters
:
1. Tort law as the first written law: to 600
2. Oaths and perjury: 600-900
3. Marriage law: 900-1066
4. Martial "law": 1066-1100
5. Criminal law and prosecution: 1100-1154
6. Common Law for all freemen: 1154-1215
7. Magna Carta: the first statute: 1215-1272
8. Land law: 1272-1348
9. Legislating the economy: 1348-1399
10. Equity from Chancery Court: 1400-1485

11. Use-trust of land: 1485-1509
12. Wills and testaments of lands and goods: 1509-1558.
13. Consideration and contract Law: 1558-1604
14. Epilogue: from 1604
Appendix: Sovereigns of England
Bibliography
Chapter 1
The Times: before 600
Clans, headed by Kings, lived in huts on top of hills or other high
places and fortified by circular or rectangular earth ditches and banks
behind which they could gather with their herds for protection. At the
entrances were several openings only one of which really allowed entry.
The others went between banks into dead ends and served as traps in
which to kill the enemy from above. Concentric circles of ditches
around these fortified camps could reach to 14 acres. The people lived
in circular huts with wood posts in a circle supporting a roof. The walls
were made of saplings, and a mixture of mud and straw. Sometimes
there were stalls for cattle. Cooking was in a clay oven inside or over
an open fire on the outside. Forests abounded with wolves, bears, wild
boars, and wild cattle.
People wore animal skins over their bodies for warmth and around their
feet for protection when walking. They carried small items by hooking
them onto their belts.
Pathways extended through this camp of huts and for many miles
beyond. They were used for trade and transport with pack horses.
Men bought or captured women for wives and carried them over the
thresholds of their huts. The first month of marriage was called the

honeymoon because the couple was given mead, a drink with
fermented honey and herbs, for the first month of their marriage. A
wife wore a gold wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand to
show that she was married. Women wore other jewelry too, which
indicated their social rank.
Women usually stayed at home caring for children, preparing meals,
and making baskets. They also made wool felt and spun and wove wool
into cloth. Flax was grown and woven into linen cloth. The weaving
was done on an upright or warp- weighted loom. People draped the
cloth around their bodies and fastened it with a metal brooch inlayed
with gold, gems, glass, and shell, which were glued on with glue that
was obtained from melting animal hooves. They also had amber beads
and pendants. They could tie things with rawhide strips or rope braids
they made. They cut things with flint dug up from pits. On the coast,
they made bone harpoons for deep sea fish.
The King, who was tall and strong, led his men in hunting groups to
kill deer and other wild animals in the forests and to fish in the streams.
Some men brought their hunting dogs on leashes to follow scent trails
to the animal. The men attacked the animals with spears and threw
stones. They used shields to protect their bodies. They watched the
phases of the moon and learned to predict when it would be full and
give the most light for night hunting. This began the concept of a
month.
If hunting groups from two clans tried to follow the same deer, there
might be a fight between the clans or a blood feud. After the battle, the
clan would bring back its dead and wounded. A priest officiated over a
funeral for a dead man. His wife would often also go on the funeral
pyre with him. Memorial burial mounds would be erected over the
corpses or cremated ashes of their great men. Later, these ashes were
first placed in urns before burial in a mound of earth or the corpses
were buried with a few personal items.
The priest also officiated over sacrifices of humans, who were usually
offenders found guilty of transgressions. Sacrifices were usually made
in time