History of the Jury

[Nhozu]

Wanted to know if anyone could help me find the Statute that said that only landowners and ratepayers could be members of the jury back in the 1800s...

I remember reading it somewhere and cant find it!

[Hymie]

No one seems to be answering this � I seem to recall this was the case until well past the end of the Second World War (although I�m not quite old enough to remember first-hand).

In 1960, Penguin books were prosecuted under the obscene publications act for the publication of Lady Chatterley�s Lover. During the proceedings, the prosecution barrister famously asked the members of the jury whether they would approve of their servants reading such a book.

Clearly there was an expectation that those serving on the jury were of a certain class, even then.