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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 3h

Short thread answering a query about the dating of 5 Elizabeth 1 c.16, An Act Against Conjurations, Inchantments and #Witchcraft.

(Text of act: statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta... )

#LegalHistory

The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 3h

Welcome to the wacky world of regnal codes and statute dating!

My source for the text, which gives the year as 1563, can now be found at:
www.scribd.com/document/347...

Statutes of the Realm dates the parliamentary session as 1562-3:
babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ps...

1/?

SMRT 131 Witchcraft and The Act of 1604 PDF | PDF | Witchcraft | Magic (Paranormal)

Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.

www.scribd.com

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 3h

These rules and calendars mean that assigning an act to a year is inherently fuzzy. So this act can be dated to 1562, 1563, or even 1562-3. It's whatever one chooses.

What stays the same is the regnal citation, 5 Elizabeth 1 c. 16, which is what should always be used to refer to the act.

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 3h

Pickering and Ruffhead both give the year as 1562.

Parliament sat from 11 January, 1562 old style / 1563 new style, to 10 April 1753.

Assent to the act was granted on 10 April 1563. But the custom at the time was to regard acts passed as coming into force with the beginning of the session

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 3h

Welcome to the wacky world of regnal codes and statute dating!

My source for the text, which gives the year as 1563, can now be found at:
www.scribd.com/document/347...

Statutes of the Realm dates the parliamentary session as 1562-3:
babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ps...

1/?

SMRT 131 Witchcraft and The Act of 1604 PDF | PDF | Witchcraft | Magic (Paranormal)

Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.

www.scribd.com

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 5d

An academic article on free legal databases has just been published by a university press.

Behind a paywall.

And the uni I work at doesn't have access.

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 9d

New Bibliography: Royal Proclamations

statutes.org.uk/site/collect...

#LegalHistory

Proclamations

The canonical bibliography of Royal proclamations is that of the Earl of Lindsey’s commission, the two volumes of ‘Tudor and Stuart Proclamations 1485-1714’: Volume 1: England and…

statutes.org.uk

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 9d

LOL:

"At a time when racial issues are so deeply troubling, Mr. Marmion and the CEO of Hein, William S. Hein, simply felt there was a moral and civic obligation to share this product with anyone, anywhere."

earlyamericanists.com/2016/12/27/p...

Guest Post: Candace Jackson Gray interviews Paul Finkelman

Candace Jackson Gray interviews Paul Finkelman, the John E. Murray Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

earlyamericanists.com

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 9d

Can anyone confirm that there is no free, individual access to Hein Online's "Slavery in America and the World" collection?

I had an individual account, which now doesn't work, and can't see any other way to access it without going through an instititution.

#LegalHistory

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Reposted by The Statutes Project

British History Online @bho.bsky.social · 13d

We're moving our Mastodon account.

As our previous provider is shutting down, we've moved to hcommons.social/@bho

Gi' us a follow!

British History Online (@[email protected])

1 Post, 239 Following, 1 Follower · BHO is a digital library of historic source material and the Victoria County Histories, based at the Institute of Historical Research

hcommons.social

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 15d

Correction: 4 paragraphs (out of 279) mention the OGL.

I think Ancestry are using this as a way of pressurizing NRS to sell access to them and them alone. I wonder how much public domain material Ancestry themselves are restricting access to.

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 15d

Thank you, this is very helpful.

Reposted by The Statutes Project

John Levin @anterotesis.bsky.social · 15d

More on the Ancestry vs National Records Scotland battle:

Ancestry and the NRS - when the corporate genealogy world turns ugly
by @chrismpaton.bsky.social

scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2025/09/ance...

#Archives

Ancestry and the NRS - when the corporate genealogy world turns ugly

From Scotland, a daily news blog about genealogy, family history and personal heritage.

scottishgenes.blogspot.com

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 15d

This is the Ancestry vs National Records of Scotland decision. There is one mention of the Open Govt License, but opening up the records isn't really discussed. Doesn't seem to have copyright implications, but I can't claim to understand all the details.

Paul F Scott @paulfscott.bsky.social · 15d

This seems to be it: caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukftt/grc/20...

Ancestry Ireland Unlimited Company v The Information Commissioner & Anor - Find Case Law - The National Archives

caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 15d

Thank you!

The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 15d

I can't find the General Regulatory Chamber decision on this case (probably because I'm completely unfamiliar with such modern matters).

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

#Archives #Law #FreedomOfInformation #FOI

John Levin @anterotesis.bsky.social · 15d

The condition of state archives in the UK, part 2:

Commercial co. demands access to state records.
(But not, it seems, that the records are made freely available.)

"Ancestry in legal bid to access Scottish family records"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#History #Archives

Ancestry in legal bid to access Scottish family records

DNA testing site, Ancestry.com, has taken legal action to access millions of Scottish family records held by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by The Statutes Project

British History Online @bho.bsky.social · 22d

Does anyone know of a list of early modern and c18th English spellings of words?

i.e. a list of alternative spellings, such as 'publick' for publick, 'Wyllyam' for William, and so on?

Surely such a thing must have been compiled?

#History #LinguisticHistory 🗃️

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · 28d

Another 'weird laws' article:

Wirral to scrap 90-year-old ban on carpet beating and ‘wanton singing’

Those ‘sounding a noisy trumpet’ or ‘inciting a dog to bark’ along part of the Merseyside coast will no longer risk arrest

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

#LegalHistory

Wirral to scrap 90-year-old ban on carpet beating and ‘wanton singing’

Those ‘sounding a noisy trumpet’ or ‘inciting a dog to bark’ along part of the Merseyside coast will no longer risk arrest

www.theguardian.com

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · Aug 7

Updated: bibliograpy of statutes of the Irish Parliament to 1800.

The Virtual Treasury has made the two last volumes ofthe IRO Early Statutes series freely available online

statutes.org.uk/site/collect...

#History #LegalHistory #IrishHistory 🗃️

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Reposted by The Statutes Project

John Levin @anterotesis.bsky.social · Aug 7

New research reveals King George IV profited from slavery in Grenada

Experts say finding heightens pressure on the monarchy to confront its historical links to slavery

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

#History #EnslavedHistory 🗃️

New research reveals King George IV profited from slavery in Grenada

Experts say finding heightens pressure on the monarchy to confront its historical links to slavery

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by The Statutes Project

John Levin @anterotesis.bsky.social · Aug 4

New bibliographic resource:

Links to the Journals of the Houses of Commons and Lords of Ireland, to 1800.

Plus where to find the parliamentary debates, circa 1776 - 1797.

anterotesis.com/wordpress/hi...

#History #IrishHistory 🗃️

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · Aug 3

Some good news:

Caribbean LGBTQ+ activists celebrate as court strikes down colonial-era laws

‘Stride in the right direction’ as Eastern Caribbean supreme court rules St Lucia’s laws on gay sex unconstitutional

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

#LegalHistory #LGBTHistory

Caribbean LGBTQ+ activists celebrate as court strikes down colonial-era laws

‘Stride in the right direction’ as Eastern Caribbean supreme court rules St Lucia’s laws on gay sex unconstitutional

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by The Statutes Project

Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · Aug 2

The reason historians don’t now use the term ‘witch hunts’ as a generalised term for the prosecution of people for witchcraft is that it implies witchcraft was always prosecuted in a different way compared to other crimes - it wasn’t

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · Aug 2

The witch hunts of 1400-1780 and today's misinformation crisis have striking parallels.

Both were fueled by new media technologies that allowed false information to spread rapidly and widely. buff.ly/6RFALyJ By Julie Walsh @wellesley.edu

From printing presses to Facebook feeds: What yesterday’s witch hunts have in common with today’s misinformation crisis

Who bears responsibility when false information leads to real harm?

buff.ly

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · Aug 1

#OTD 1st August 1834, the act 3 & 4 William 4 c.73, 'for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies' came into force, turning the enslaved into apprentices and compensating the slave-owners.

statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta...

#LegalHistory #EnslavedHistory

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · Jul 31

This book looks very interesting, and is #OpenAccess:

Staging Witchcraft Before the Law
Skepticism, Performance as Proof, and Law as Magic in Early Modern Witch Trials

www.cambridge.org/core/element...

#LegalHistory #Witchcraft

Staging Witchcraft Before the Law

Cambridge Core - Religion: General Interest - Staging Witchcraft Before the Law

www.cambridge.org

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The Statutes Project @statutes.bsky.social · Jul 31

Text of the act:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/9...

#History #LegalHistory