What is Legal History Miscellany?

The three of us work on various facets of the histories of law, crime, and justice, primarily in a British context. We might consider ourselves first and foremost social historians, historians of women and gender, or historians of medicine, but typically return time and again to using sources produced by legal processes or to the history of people’s interactions with those legal processes.  In addition to fancying an excuse to work together, we wanted a place to put interesting tales from the archives that never quite made it into regular publications, summaries of publications that do appear, reports on research in progress, and the occasional random musing that might be of interest to an audience beyond academia. To begin with, we aim to upload new posts on at least a monthly basis.

If you’re interested in similar topics, please reply to our posts and/or follow us on Twitter @legalmiscellany. We look forward to hearing from you!

Who are we?  

Sara M. Butler is the King George III Professor in British History at The Ohio State University. She specializes in late medieval English history (13th to early 16th centuries), with books and articles on spousal abuse; divorce; infanticide; abortion by assault; death investigation; peine forte et dure; and more.

Krista Kesselring is a professor of British History at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS). She works mainly in early modern history (c. 1500-1700), but occasionally traipses into the years beyond, with books and articles on such topics as royal pardons and mercy; riot and rebellion; coverture; criminal forfeiture; and homicide.

Katherine D. (Cassie) Watson is a Reader in History at Oxford Brookes University. She specializes in forensic medicine and crime in Britain between 1700 and the early twentieth century. Her publications have studied topics including poisoning, vitriol attacks, assault, child murder, and the role of scientific expertise in criminal investigations and trials.