Habeas Corpus Act of the Restoration

Glossary

• Berwick upon Tweed the northernmost town in England, scene of many battles in the border wars between the kingdoms of England and Scotland
• barons … degree of the coif relating to the Order of the Coif, a group of sergeants-at-law whose members became judges in the Court of Common Pleas and later the King's Bench
• cinque-ports in southeastern England, the coastal towns located where the distance across the channel is the shortest
• colourable seemingly valid
• enlargement setting free
• general gaol-delivery a legal commission by which prisoners are quickly brought to trial before a court
• lords spiritual and temporal, and commons members of Parliament. At the time of the act, the lords spiritual were bishops of the Church of England, and the lords temporal were members of the hereditary peerage; they comprised the House of Lords. “Commons,” representatives of the towns and cities, sat in the House of Commons.
• Non vult ulterius prosequi a plea of not wishing to pursue a prosecution further
• Per statutum tricesimo primo Caroli secundi Regi in accordance with the thirty-first statute of the reign of King Charles the Second
• returnable required by law to be delivered
• vacation-time a parliamentary recess