Contents

pp v-vii

GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE

pp viii-viii

Preface

pp ix-x

Introduction

pp xi-xiv

Abbreviations

pp xv-xviii

CHAPTER I - FAMILY AND ESTATES: History of the Shareshull family and of their landed estates, with special reference to the chief justice

pp 1-13

CHAPTER II - PROFESSIONAL CAREER: Shareshull's elementary and legal education; his career as pleader and as judge; his appointments to common pleas, king's bench and exchequer, also to innumerable commissions, special and general

pp 14-27

CHAPTER III - PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Shareshull's relations with the king on diplomatic missions and in parliament and council; his work on the private domains of the Black Prince

pp 28-40

CHAPTER IV - LEGISLATION: Shareshull's part in framing ordinances and statutes, especially the legal and economic enactments of 1349-52

pp 41-58

CHAPTER V - LAW ENFORCEMENT: Shareshull's policy of law enforcement, and of the imposition of huge financial penalties by means of commissions of oyer and terminer and of eyres, by the development of the justices of the peace and of the justices of labourers, and by a novel use of the king's bench

pp 59-78

CHAPTER VI - STAFF AND EXPENSES: The enrolment and the preservation of proceedings before Shareshull; his group of trained clerks; arrangements for travelling and for transporting documents, for housing, food and clothing; annual stipends and daily fees

pp 79-90

CHAPTER VII - SHARESHULL AND SHARDELOW: An account of the confusion between William Shareshull and his colleague John Shardelow; an attempt at disentangling them

pp 91-102

CHAPTER VIII - LEGAL DOCTRINE:Shareshull's judicial pleadings and opinions: his legal thought in general, his learning, his doctrines of private law and of criminal law

pp 103-134

CHAPTER IX - VINDICATION OF CHARACTER: Analysis of the charges against Shareshull and of the attitude of his contemporaries towards him; reasons for his retirement to a Franciscan convent

pp 135-150

CHAPTER X - His PLACE IN HISTORY: An estimate of Shareshull's personality and of his significance for legal, economic and administrative history

pp 151-156

APPENDIXES

pp 157-158

Appendix I - GENEALOGY AND LANDED PROPERTY

pp 159-161

Appendix II - EVIDENCE FOR SHARESHULL'S ACTIVITIES

pp 162-204

Appendix III - SHARESHULL AND SHARDELOW IN THE UPPER COURTS

pp 205-234

NOTES

pp 235-303

List of statutes cited

pp 304-304

List of reports of cases cited

pp 305-311

Index

pp 312-328