Dating from 1557-1775, nearly 270 files and rolls from the Isle of Ely Assizes court – where the region’s most serious crimes were tried – will be catalogued after a £40,000 gift by the Society to help preserve these extraordinary records.



Featuring a rogues’ gallery of criminals, miscreants and their misdemeanours, the records bear testament to the capital offences that came before the Ely Assizes at a time when to be branded a criminal could mean the most severe punishments – up to and including death.



The courts, which tended to be overseen by professional judges rather than the local gentry, survived until 1972 when they were replaced by Crown Courts. Cases heard in Ely and Wisbech over the centuries often featured the gravest offences of the day including: murder, witchcraft, theft, highway robbery, rape, assault, coining, forgery, trespass, vagrancy, recusancy (failure to attend Anglican services) and infanticide.