Londoners and the Law: pleadings in the court of common pleas 1399-1509

The project seeks to answer the question: why and how did 15th-century Londoners make use of the royal court of common pleas at Westminster? It will track and analyse the litigation brought both by and against Londoners in the common pleas over the course of the period 1399-1509, and use the data gathered to answer a series of questions that will significantly enlarge our understanding go how the law was regarded and employed both in London, and more widely in late medieval England.
These questions include: what types of suits were brought by and against Londoners? Was there a clear emphasis on commercial or contractual litigation, or were disputes over land represented in similar measure? Were specific groups more prone than others to sue or be sued? What proportion of litigation for debt by bond concerns genuine mercantile debt? Are there particular types of transactions more likely than others to be guaranteed by bonds and subsequently pleaded in common pleas? What proportion of suits concerning Londoners brought in common pleas could have been dealt with by the London courts?
It will also use this comprehensive archival material to create a substantial database of litigants and subjects of litigation involving Londoners which will be made available on the web, thus opening the source up to further enquiry. No other attempt has been made to extract data systematically for a specific county or set of counties over a long period of time from this major body of archival material, to analyse it, and to render it accessible in electronic form.