Notestein, Wallace

The author presents a chronological survey of the more significant trials from 1558 to 1718, along with an account of the progress of opinion. Among his sources are pamphlets recording confessions and executions, local records, court files, memoirs and diaries of witnesses, and the gloating newspaper accounts of the time.

Here is English society and government on the eve of the great migration to America. The Crown, the courts, Parliament, the church and the university, town and country, etc. are all brought to life in a book which captures the inner character of the English people of the 17th century.