Category Archives: Library Collections

Felonious Returns, or There’s No Place Like Home

By Natasha Bailey Joseph Parker was indicted for that at the Sessions of Gaol-Delivery holden at the Old-Baily… [he] was duly convicted of stealing the Goods of the said Rice Price, to the value of 4 s. and 10 d. and was accordingly ordered to be transported to some of his Majesty’s Colonies, or Plantations, in… Read More »

Top tips for using SOLO

Your gateway to locating law resources in Oxford libraries is our online catalogue SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries Online). However, like any search engine, SOLO can sometimes be a little tricky to get used to, so we’ve put together some handy hints to help you find what you need in the Bodleian jungle… 1. What you… Read More »

Leopard-Spotted Satin, or Crime as Protest

Woven silk brocade in leopard-spot pattern, France, 1760s, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. By Natasha Bailey William Eastman was indicted for that he on the 11th of September, about one in the night, the dwelling house of Daniel Clarke, did break, and by force enter, with intent, feloniously and maliciously to cut and destroy silk manufactory,… Read More »

The Language of Crime, or I Cant Understand You

Alt text: “A Collection of the Canting Words and Terms, both ancient and modern, used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, House-Breakers, Shop-Lifters, Foot-Pads, Highway-Men &c,” from Nathan Bailey’s The new universal etymological English dictionary (1760). Image courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera (Crime 7 (25)). By Natasha Bailey Sarah Page, Catharine… Read More »

The Sailor’s Widow, or Crime Sometimes Pays

By Natasha Bailey This post is the first of a series looking at the LawBod’s pre-1800 collections (yes, we do have them!) and one of (hopefully) several on cases that have caught my eye from the proceedings of the Old Bailey. The original print copies of these proceedings from the early 1700s onward are in… Read More »

Letters of the Law

By Wanne Mendonck and Katharine Matthews   If you have visited the Law Library over the last week you may have come across our new display Letters of the Law, which will introduce you to the wide range of material we have in the Law Library collection; after all, and as this display will hopefully… Read More »