THE ENGLISH URBAN MAGISTRACY AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE DURING THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY: WOLVERHAMPTON 1815–1860

Abstract

In 1974, in his study of the Warwickshire county magistracy between 1835 and 1870, Roland Quinault observed ‘we know surprisingly little about the group of men primarily responsible for maintainin~ order in mid-nineteenth century Britain — the magistracy’. This observation is perhaps as true now as it then was, for despite the considerable attention which social historians have recently devoted to the study of urban crime and disorder in Victorian Britain there have been relatively few studies of the role and influence of the urban magistracy. Indeed, the pioneering studies of Sidney and Beatrice Webb and Esther Moir very much remain the standard works on the bench during the period.