The ‘bawdy’ courts as they were called in common parlance got their name because of the sensational and often scurrilous nature of the church court cases. Cases concerning immorality and defamation required witnesses to report on the intimate goings on of their neighbours. This talk will look at the types of cases heard by the courts, how the courts functioned, and about the people who came to the court to plead their case, defend their good name, or simply give their testimony. Please be prepared for some offensive language, from the original documents, not the speaker!.
Rebecca Jackson: I have been an archivist at Staffordshire Record Office since 2003. Prior to that I taught history in Stoke on Trent and turned my research hobby into a career by retraining to become an archivist. I now split my time between Stoke on Trent City Archives and Staffordshire Record Office, where most recently I have been working on the Bawdy Courts of Lichfield project (See: The Bawdy Courts of Lichfield - Scandal laid bare, strife uncovered an beautiful buildings revealed (Wordpress)).
