c1500 - c1700: crime and punishment in 18th and 19th century britain

Question 1

Why did more people move to urban areas?

Answer 1

Becuase unemployment rates were high and it was easier to find jobs.

Question 2

What type of crimes increased with a higher population in cities?

Answer 2

Crimes against the person: increase of street criminals and petty thieves.

Question 3

Why was there an increase in crimes against the person?

Answer 3

Population in urban areas was higher.

Question 4

What did the end of feudalism an dnew farming methods lead to in society?

Answer 4

Enclosed farming areas.

Question 5

What type of crimes increased with enclosed farming areas?

Answer 5

Crimes against property: poaching.

Question 6

Why was there an increase in crimes against property?

Answer 6

Land owners restricted those who could hunt on their land so more people took up poaching.

Question 7

What type of crimes increased with changes in people’s religious beliefs?

Answer 7

Crimes against authority.

Question 8

What is treason?

Answer 8

The act of plotting or acting to overthrow or harm the ruler of a country.

Question 9

What is heresy?

Answer 9

The crime of having religious beliefs that were different to the official religion of the country.

Question 10

When did heresy first become a crime?

Answer 10

1382

Question 11

Why did treason charges become more common?

Answer 11

There were more disputes about who should rule.

Question 12

Why did heresy charges become more common?

Answer 12

The official religion kept changing between Catholic and Protestant.

Question 13

Who played a role in charging people with heresy?

Answer 13

Important members of the clergy.

Question 14

When did heresy and treason become interlinked?

Answer 14

When monarchs became head of the Church.

Question 15

What was heresy usually punished by?

Answer 15

Burning at the stake.

Question 16

What was a vagabond/vagrant?

Answer 16

An unemployed or homeless person.

Question 17

Give 2 reasons why the 15th and 16th Centuries saw a large increase in vagabondage?

Answer 17

• Falling wages
• Rising food prices
• Increasing population
• No system to help the needy

Question 18

How did the rest of the population view vagabonds?

Answer 18

As lazy and responsible for their own problems.

Question 19

When was the Vagabondage and Beggars Act passed?

Answer 19

1494

Question 20

What did the Vagabondage and Beggars Act outline?

Answer 20

If a vagabond was found, they would be put in stocks for 3 days and then sent to where they were born.

Question 21

When was the Vagrancy Act passed?

Answer 21

1547

Question 22

What did the Vagrancy Axt outline?

Answer 22

Anyone able-bodied without work for more than three days was branded with the letter ‘v’ and sold as a slave for two years.

Question 23

Why was the Vagrancy Act repealed?

Answer 23

It was impossible to enforce.

Question 24

When was the Act for the Relief of the Poor introduced?

Answer 24

1597

Question 25

What did the Act for the Relief of the Poor outline?

Answer 25

Split vagrants into two categories - ‘deserving’ (elderly and disabled) and ‘undeserving’ (those fit for work).

Question 26

When were the Poor Laws introduced?

Answer 26

1601

Question 27

What did the Poor Laws outline?

Answer 27

The ‘deserving’ poor were given poor relief by the local parish and the ‘undeserving’ poor could be branded, whipped or sent to a correction house.

Question 28

What happened when import tax was increased on certain goods in the late 17th Century?

Answer 28

Smuggling increased.

Question 29

What type of crime was smuggling?

Answer 29

A social crime.

Question 30

What is smuggling?

Answer 30

The act of secretly bringing goods into a country to avoid paying import taxes.

Question 31

Why were laws against smuggling difficult to enforce.

Answer 31

People did not view it as a threat.

Question 32

Did witchcraft become more or less serious than in medieval times?

Answer 32

More serious.

Question 33

Who made witchcraft punishable by death and in what year?

Answer 33

Henry VIII in 1542.

Question 34

How did Elizabeth I change the law regarding witchcraft in 1563?

Answer 34

Charges of witchcraft had to be tried in a common court.

Question 35

In 1604, who did James I instruct the death penalty to be given to?

Answer 35

Anybody ‘summoning evil spirits’.