Domestic Violence Prosecuted: Women Binding over Their Husbands for Assault at Westminster Quarter Sessions, 1685-1720

Abstract

Recognizances have been studied very little as evidence of domestic violence, yet they can yield many insights for historians. Using more than one hundred recognizances for assaults by husbands upon wives in Westminster Quarter Sessions records, 1680-1720, this article argues that wives could prosecute even a relatively minor incident of violence. In contrast, servants and apprentices appear to have been able to prosecute assaults by employers only if they coincided with contractual violations. Adulterous lovers, neighbors, and extended family were present in domestic violence prosecutions at various times and, along with wives, appear to have played a role in limiting patriarchal power.