ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the hue and cry in the context of fourteenth-century Great Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth was selected for this investigation into the practice of the hue and cry due to the excellent survival of secular leet court roll evidence for the borough, with an almost complete series of records surviving for the period 1366 and 1381, a timeframe which influences the study. Indeed, as demonstrates, women in Great Yarmouth practised the hue and cry nearly as frequently as men. This chapter discusses the background and context of women's involvement, or lack thereof, in formal methods of community policing in Yarmouth, before moving on to explores the evidence contained within the thirty-five cases of hue and cry for the port town during the period in question. Connected to local law enforcement was an increased distrust of women's voices and a greater linkage between the false raising of the hue and scolding.