Working away this morning, I came across Bushel's Case, which established in
1670 that a judge can't really lock up a jury without food and drink
indefinitely to get the required verdict from them. Quite a lot hangs on that.
(NB some sources say Edward Bushel(l) was the jury foreman, which is not the
case, per the ODNB.)
What would be nice would be a photo of the plaque in the Old Bailey,
commemorating William Penn and his "partner in crime" William Mead, who were in
the dock in the relevant case.
http://www.duhaime.org/LawMuseum/LawArticle-1335/1670-The-Jury-Earns-Its-In…
has a photo, not usable on Commons as such I think without some further ado.
The plaque said to date from the rebuilding of the Old Bailey
(
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4n4qvZo9QxsC&pg=PA170
<https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4n4qvZo9QxsC&pg=PA170> ) which puts it at
about 1907; and if it is flat then it would be OK to reuse the online images out
there. There is a mention in the The Journal of American History around 1910.
There are other Old Bailey plaques on Commons. If anyone could oblige with a
photo of this one, I think it would be worthwhile. I don't know how easy it
would be to photograph afresh, though. The Open Plaques page
http://openplaques.org/plaques/10523 has no image. This page
http://www.britannia.com/hiddenlondon/penn_oldbailey.html
says it is in the entrance lobby (good); but that the lobby is closed to the
public, cameras not allowed (not so good).
Charles