1. THE WITHAM FIRES AND THE 1820S
   • The 1820s: Historical Background
   • Witham and the Fires
2. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND THE WITHAM FIRES
   • The initial reaction to an offence
   • Whether to prosecute
   • The trial
   • Sentences and Petitions
3. THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND
   • National and local interests
   • Poverty and prosperity
   • Strangers and friends
4. CONCLUSION
   • Acknowledgements
   • Select Bibliography
   • Select List of Sources

3. THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Crime has attracted the attention of historians for its own sake, as discussed in the previous section. But because of the volume and detail of the records it has generated, it is also of historical value to those whose interests extend into society as a whole. Personal documents such as household papers and ephemera only survive very rarely. In their absence, people can only be studied when they come under other particularly well-documented spotlights, such as those of the criminal law. Thus episodes like the Witham fires provide invaluable source material for the study of many aspects of social history. This section will discuss three such aspects as examples. They are the tensions between national and local interests, the relationship between the poor and the prosperous, and the status of 'strangers'.

Next page: National and local interests