Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction: from "A Jovial Crew" (1641) to "The Beggar's Opera" (1728); customary liberties and legal rights. Part 2 Lawlessness: vagabonds; the poor and wage labour; Robin Hood; Robin Hood, possesive individualism and the norman yoke; forests and venison, game laws and poachers; smugglers; pirates; highwaymen; "gypsy liberty". Part 3 Imperial problems: "going native" - "the noble savage"; impressment and the empire. Part 4 Christian liberty: the ambiguities of Protestantism; church courts and fees; marriage and parish registrations; the Mosaic Law and the Priesthood of All Believers; antinomianism. Part 5 Society, law and liberty: history and the law; liberty and equality - who are the people?; whose law? and whose liberty?; "away with the lawyers!". Part 5 Aftermath: Gerrard Winstanley - the law of freedom; the Society of Friends and law; apocalypse and after; John Clare, 1793 - 1864.