62 field presided, but was joined on the bench by four other judges.Mansfield was active in the questioning, asking each of the witnesses to identify the handwriting or to indicate his doubts. Six of the eight convicted forgers who were sentenced to death were executed.^^ In the Newgate Ordinary’s report of the dying words of John Rice, one of the six. Rice was described as tearfully imploring Lord Mansfield for mercy and for intercession with the King. After words of compassion. Lord Mansfield warned him “not to flatter himself with vain hopes of that mercy which was not to be expected”, for, “considering your crime, and its consequences, in a nation, where there is so much paper credit, I must tell you I think myself bound in duty and conscience to acquaint his Majesty you are no object of his mercyRicehad been convicted of forging a joint stock certificate of South Sea annuities and a power of attorney. Lord Mansfield added, according to the Ordinary, “that all public companies, concerned in paper credit, should take caution from this instance, as no doubt they will, to examine strictly all letters of attorney, and papers wherein there can be any suspicion of fraud”. 4. Conclusion In the year 1789, the royal courts of England were in a state of relative stability. The tumultuous times of the Gordon Riots (1780) and the American Revolution had become a memory, and although anxious eyes were directed across the English Channel toward France, there was comparative domestic calm. Yet in the courts, the strain of increasing caseloads was beginning to tell, and a reaction to the 32-year dominance of Lord Mansfield as the de facto Chief Justice of England was imminent. That reaction carried over into the 19th century, reemphasizing the need for certainty in common law rules and the importance of the line between the common lawcourts and the Court of Chancery Operationally, however, the methods for prosecuting crime and resolving disputes in the centralized London courts continued largely unchanged throughout the 18th century. By examining surviving manuscript sources, such as Lord Mansfield’s notes, we are able to verify the practices followed in the administraThe Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Glyn; Baron Smythe, Justice Wilmot and the Recorder of London, WilliamMoreton. See: The Tryal at Large ofJohn Ayliffe, Esq; for Forgery; at Justice-Hall in the Old-Bailey, London: On Thursday the 25th Day of October 1759, 1759. The remaining two convicted forgers were pardoned on condition of transportation for life. The Ordinary of Newgate’s Account of the behaviour, confession, and dying words of three malefactors — who were executed at Tyburn on Wednesday, May 4, 1763, bound in with the Old Bailey Session Papers, Guildhall Library, London, p. 29. See Fifoot, C.H.S., Lord Mansfield, 1936, Ch. VIII. 68
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