Anglo Saxon Private Legal Documents in United Kingdom

This issue under the Ruling of the Anglo Saxons

Chronicles and other writings

Then we have incidental notices of Anglo-Saxon legal matters in chronicles and other writings, of which the value for this purpose must be judged by the usual canons of coincidence or nearness in point of time, the writer’s means of access to contemporary witness or continuous tradition not otherwise preserved, his general trustworthiness in things more easily verified, and so forth. Except for certain passages of Bede, we do not think that the general literary evidence, so to call it, is remarkable either in quantity or in quality. Such as we have is, as might be expected, of social and economic interest in the first place, and throws a rather indirect light upon the legal aspect of Anglo-Saxon affairs.

Source: Sir Frederick Pollock, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (1895)

Anglo Saxon Private Legal Documents and Medieval Law

Anglo Saxon Private Legal Documents and Legal History

Legal Materials

(Compiled by the University of South Caroline Gould School of Law) Kemble, John M., ed. and trans. Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici. 6 Vols. English Historical Society Publications. London: Sumptibus Societatis, 1839-1848.

Abstract: Contains 1349 documents including most of the existing Anglo-Saxon charters, a large number of private legal documents, conveyances of land, leases, and wills, ranging from AD 604 to ca. AD 1061. Latin translation from the Anglo-Saxon.

Raine, James, William Greenwell, and Herbert M. Wood, eds. Wills and Inventories Illustrative of the History, Manners, Language, Statistics, etc. of the Northern Counties of England from the Eleventh Century Downwards. 4 v. Publications of the Surtees Society, v.2, 38, 112 & 142. London, J.B. Nichols and Son, 1835-1929. Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) number (used in Worldcat): 277439358Abstract: Chiefly from the registry at Durham.

Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. Diplomatarium Anglicum Aevi Saxonici; a Collection of English Charters, From the Reign of King Aethelberht of Kent, A.D. DC. V. to That of William the Conqueror … With a Translation of the Anglo-Saxon . London: Macmillan, 1865.

Abstract: A collection of some 325 English charters from the reign of Aethelberht of Kent, AD 605 to the Norman Conquest, with a translation of the Anglo-Saxon. Contents: I, Miscellaneous charters; II, Wills; III, Guilds; IV, Manumissions and acquitances.

Whitelock, Dorothy, and Harold D. Hazeltine, ed. Anglo-Saxon Wills. Cambridge Studies in English Legal History. Holmes Beach, FL: Gaunt, 1986.

Abstract: Original edition, with translation and notes by Dorothy Whitelock, published in 1930 by Cambridge University Press. Republished by Gaunt (Holmes Beach, FL) in 1986 with comments on the 1930 edition by H. D. Hazeltine.

Bibliographies of English Law History

• Maxwell, William H. A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Volume 1: English Law to 1800. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1955-
• Beale, Joseph H. A Bibliography of Early English Law Books. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926.
• Winfield, Percy H. The Chief Sources of English Legal History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Resources

See Also

• Detinue (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Crusader Privileges (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Medieval Justice (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• List of Medieval Laws (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Deceit (in this legal Encyclopedia)