It was more than forty years ago, while I was working on The Statutes of Labourers, that I first became aware of Shareshull, but I did not at that time recognize his importance. It was not until 1933 that I realized how much he had contributed to the economic and criminal legislation of the reign of Edward III. After I had retired in 1937, and had finished my volume on Proceedings before the Justices of the Peace, I devoted myself to trying to write a biography of Shareshull. I was greatly aided in this work by a generous grant for research from the Harvard Law School and by the courtesy and helpfulness of the librarian and of the members of the faculty and the staff, especially of Professor Thomas Reed Powell.

My obligations are also very great to the Cambridge University Press, to Professor H. D. Hazeltine, and to the officials of the Widener Library, of the British Museum, of the Public Record Office, to the librarian of the William Salt Library in Stafford, Miss M. Midgley and her successor, Miss M. Gollancz, and to two of the trustees, Mr Gerald Mander and Mr S. A. H. Burne; and to Miss M. A. Hennings, who has compiled the index to this volume.

Unfortunately when I was in England in 1946, checking manuscript references for the present volume, I had an attack of shingles which destroyed the sight of one eye and left me with very little vision in the other. Therefore I have been unable to correct the proofs, and I am exceedingly grateful to Mr E. L. G. Stones of Glasgow University for undertaking the task of seeing the book through the press, and also to Professor Plucknett and to Mrs J. M. B. Stones, for helping to correct the proofs. I have no words in which adequately to express my gratitude for the assistance of these scholars.