Law and Crime in Legend and Tradition: the Tenth Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society The Tenth Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society

5th — 6th September 2015
Town Hall, Huntingdon, PE29 3PJ

Law and Crime in Legend and Tradition: the Tenth Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society: Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September 2015 at the Town Hall, Huntingdon, PE29 3PJ

Oyez, oyez! Who will give evidence at this forthcoming conference? If the Man in the Iron Mask was a poacher in famous Lincolnshire, then the criminal prosecution of animals is ultra vires since my client is a werewolf. I think we can rule spectral evidence out of court, given that the devil’s pact was signed before a Maiden Assize. John Doe the robber bridegroom may be struggling after death to replace that boundstone, but he is clearly unaware that the passage of his funeral has created a right of way. That nude widow riding backwards on a ram will not prevent members of the jury from watching the wall as the gentlemen go by. My learned friend thinks the possession of a serpent’s egg qualifies him to serve a fairy process, but is he the lawyer who will milk the cow? Murder will out. If a psychic detective has predicted the verdict, will no-one put the saints on trial? Let bloody Jeffreys do his bird with the Black Dog of Newgate, my client will wait confidently at the prickly bush while the red cock crows. Ah well, if he’s to be hanged we can always sell pieces of the rope.

This two-day conference on Law and Crime in Legend and Tradition will be held on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September 2015 as the tenth Legendary Weekend of the Folklore Society, at the Town Hall and Court Room in Huntingdon, next to Dick Turpin’s local and across the road from the witches of Warboys. We’ll hear from folklorists, jurists, storytellers, barristers, social historians and the usual suspects.

Tickets £50 (£30 day rate). To book, please contact (without prejudice): Jeremy Harte, Bourne Hall, Spring Street, Ewell, Surrey KT17 1UF, Tel. 020 8394 1734, Email: bhallmuseum@gmail.com

Programme:

Saturday 5th September

9.30 Registration and coffee

First session
10.00 Mark Norman, ‘Fraudulent Mediums and the Law’

10.30 Mark Lewis, ‘Ecclesiastical Law’

11.00 Coffee at conference

Second session

11.30 Alan Murdie, ‘Folklore in the Law’

12.00 Joel Conn, ‘The Folk Culture of the Scots Lawyer’

12.30 Robert McDowall, ‘Two Judicial Characters: Charles Darling and Horace Avory’

13.00 Break for lunch

Third session