ABSTRACT
In response to chancery writs of late June 1322, Alan de Copledyke, the official tasked with receiving and valuing contrariants’ lands in Lincolnshire, convened juries in Lincoln on 9 July to take such inquisitions. It is possible to discern an external influence over, certainly, the petitions of Walter of Owmby and his widowed sister-in-law Alice and possibly over those of Richera of Cadeby and her mother. As Henry Summerson notes in a superb analysis of the law and practice of summary justice, it 'was certainly capable of being terribly abused'. In order to prevent mob rule and lynch law in local justice, the practice of beheading criminals was, in theory, regulated. Whether the captors robbed and/or assaulted them during detention is not known and never asserted, but their flight is telling they did not wish to present their captives to public view, potential liberation or common law justice.
