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A Public Penance Text  Until the 19th century, the courts of the established church exercised a wide-ranging jurisdiction which included moral offences such as defamation, fornication and adultery. This is an order from the Lichfield consistory court to the ministers of the parish churches of Walsall and Rushall and the chapel of Bloxwich to call before them Ann Bickley to do penance for fornication.
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Lichfield Record Office: B/C/5/1740/113
Reproduced by permission of the Lichfield Diocesan Registrar.
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