[ANSTHRLD] baronial service awards

[Diane Rudin]

--- Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:

> *Was* there a case in Maryland where a party to a lawsuit
> (presumably about land) invoked trial by combat?

Dunno.  It's on the wrong side of the pond.  :)

Depending on date, I wouldn't be surprised, though.  One of the
things that was debated in Parliament (during the debates over what
Americans would come to call the Intolerable Acts) c. 1770 was
whether to abolish trial by wager of battle  in the colonies.  In the
end it was decided that they couldn't abolish it in the colonies
without abolishing it in England, and that provision was dropped.  So
it was still legal in the colonies, and since the U.S. is a nice
oddball combination of common and civil (statutory) law, no doubt
there were some colonies in which it remained in force for some time,
until such a case brought to their attention the need to expunge it
from the books, by legislative act.

--Serena

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