The Ordeal of Edward Bushell [Paperback]

Godfrey D. Lehman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Lexicon Pub (June 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879563045
• ISBN-13: 978-1879563049
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #607,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Historical Insight, June 24, 2000

By 

Texas Lawyer (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ordeal of Edward Bushell (Paperback)

Lehman, a historian who has specialized for many years in studying the history of juries, has created here an amazing fictionalization of what the trial of William Penn and William Mead was really like - from the perspective of the jurors. Penn and Mead, on trial for their lives, had been accused essentially of inciting a riot. Their crime was preaching the Quaker religion in the street, after they had been locked out of their meeting house by the authorities. The quaker religion, in 17th century England, was illegal.

The jury - always a controversial institution, especially with those in power - acquitted Penn and Mead after enduring great hardships. However, the legal texts and case books describe those hardships in an abstract, detached way, with no insight into the actual people who played this critical role in history.

Lehman investigated the actual conditions these jurors faced, and what is known about the individuals who served on the jury, and attempted to recreate the trial as it actually occurred. What wasn't known he filled in with his imagination and sense of humor - although even those items are rich in historical detail, through Mr. Lehman's deep sense of history.

I'd recommend it for reading. It would make a great play or movie as well, if any producers of such things are reading this...