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Speaker: Ann Hughes

The title comes from evidence given in the church court at Lichfield against the Rector of Sudbury who was accused, amongst other things, of a sexual relationship with a married parishioner. In the early modern period, many crucial aspects of people’s lives were dealt with by church courts rather than secular bodies – for the people of Derbyshire this meant the Consistory Court of Lichfield Diocese, often known as the ‘bawdy court’ for much of the business included sexual transgressions, marital disputes and slander or ‘defamation’ which also often involved sexual accusations. The Court also dealt with behaviour in church, care for church buildings, clerical standards, and wills and heritance. A cataloguing project by Staffordshire Archives and Heritage has made the fascinating records of this court available more widely, and my talk will explore its workings with particular use of Derbyshire examples.

Professor Ann Hughes is retired from Keele University where she was Professor of Early Modern History for almost twenty years. She works mostly on the mid-seventeenth English political and religious upheavals and was academic advisor to the ‘Bawdy Courts of Lichfield’ project.