Considering the rapidity with which trials were conducted and the disadvan-
tages under which the accused suffered, the acquittal rate in all property of-
fences—clergyable as well as non-clergyable and for men as well as
women—was strikingly high in the years following the Restoration. Certainly it
was much higher than it had been in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Archer has found that 38 per cent of women accused of simple grand larceny at
the Old Bailey in the late sixteenth century were acquitted. But men were much
more harshly treated by their juries in that period than they were to be after
1660. Only 17 per cent accused of simple larceny were acquitted at the Eliza-
bethan Old Bailey, compared to 42 per cent in the later period; and in the case
of non-clergyable—that is, in essence, capital—felonies, the earlier acquittal
rate was 12 per cent compared to 44 per cent in the years following the Restor-
ation.^68 Juries were notably lenient in the late seventeenth century. The 45 per cent
The Old Bailey in the Late Seventeenth Century 285(OBSP, February 1681 , p. 2 ). That rule accounted, however, for very few of the large number of not
guilty verdicts in this period (Beattie, Crime and the Courts, 238 , n. 71 ).
(^68) Archer, Pursuit of Stability(calculated from the data in Table 6. 4 , pp. 246 – 7 ). On the other hand, the
largest body of data available for the assize courts in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries—
James Cockburn’s multi-volume calendars of indictments at the Home Circuit assizes, 1558 – 1625 —
shows an acquittal rate in those five counties surrounding London of 40 % over that period (Calendar of
Assize Records: Home Circuit Indictments, Elizabeth I and James I. Introduction(London, 1985 ), 114 , Table 10.
Table 6. 1 .Jury verdicts at the Old Bailey in property offences in the City ofLondon,
1663 – 1689
Not guilty Guilty Partial verdict Othera Total
Non-clergyable
Men 94 71 39 8 212
% 44. 3 33. 5 18. 4 3. 8 100. 0
Women 167 106 71 5 349
% 47. 9 30. 4 20. 3 1. 4 100. 0
Clergyable
Men 183 202 44 12 441
% 41. 5 45. 8 10. 0 2. 7 100. 0
Women 23 15 7 — 45
% 51. 1 33. 3 15. 6 — 100. 0
Total
Men 277 273 83 20 653
% 42. 1 41. 8 12. 7 3. 1 100. 0
Women 190 121 78 5 394
% 48. 2 30. 7 19. 8 1. 3 100. 0
Grand Total 467 394 161 25 1047
% 44. 6 37. 6 15. 4 2. 4 100. 0
Note:
aIncluding accused discharged, charged on another indictment, special and unknown verdicts
Source: Sample