Oxford LibGuides: Legal history: England & common law tradition: Labour law: serfdom, villeinage, indentured servitude, master & servant, labour contracts

Early labour & employment law: serfdom, villeinage, indentured servitude, master and servant

Subject searches to use in SOLO - the first examples show how you could add elements to refine

Serfdom -- England -- History and Serfdom - England - History

Indentured servants
Contract labor

Master and servant -- Great Britain -- History
Labor contract -- Great Britain -- History

Labor laws and legislation

Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. See the entry Employment & labour law ; English common law
Alternative name: OIELH

The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History is the online version of the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (edited by S.N. Katz et al) published by OUP in 2009.

Introduction to English Legal History by John Baker
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link

ISBN: 9780198812616

Publication Date: 5th edn 2019

Print copy is available at Legal Hist B167a5 if preferred
King, Lords, and Peasants in Medieval England: the common law of villeinage in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by Paul R. Hyams
Call Number: BHFL Upper Gladstone Link HT781 HYA 1980

ISBN: 019821880X

Publication Date: 1980
The Decline of Serfdom in Late Medieval England by Mark Bailey
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link

ISBN: 9781843838906

Publication Date: 2014

Print copy could be requested from Closed Stacks or there is a copy in BHFL Upper Gladstone Link HT757 BAI 2014
Indentured servitude : unfree labour and citizenship in the British colonies by Anna Suranyi.
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this via title link

ISBN: 9780228007784

Publication Date: 2021
Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562-1955 by Douglas Hay (Editor); Paul Craven (Editor)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link

ISBN: 9780807828779

Publication Date: 2004

Print copy at Legal Hist H412a if preferred.
Competing Visions of Empire : Labor, Slavery, and the Origins of the British Atlantic Empire by Abigail L. Swingen
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link

ISBN: 9780300187540

Publication Date: 2015

Print copy in BHFL Upper Gladstone Link F2131 SWI 2015

Open access available to all with access to the internet

A ‘new system of slavery’? The British West Indies and the origins of Indian indenture
Open access. TNA blog example of research among the archives

Labour Laws in Preindustrial Europe by Jane Whittle (Editor); Charmian Mansell (Contribution by); Theresa Johnsson (Contribution by); Vilhelm Vilhelmsson (Contribution by); Thijs Lambrecht (Editor); Francine Michaud (Contribution by); Raffaella Sarti (Contribution by); Davide Christoferi (Contribution by); Hanne Osthus (Contribution by); Carolina Uppenberg (Contribution by)
Call Number: Open Access book available free to anyone with internet connection

ISBN: 9781783277681

Publication Date: 2023

Legal history topics

Some topics are considered in other pages in this guide, while others are included in separate or different guides. Please use the links below to navigate your way to whatever might help!

Boroughs, towns
A page in this guide
Chancery
Another page in this guide
Commercial enterprises, companies & corporations
Another page in this guide
Constitutional development
Another page in this guide
Criminal law
Another page in this guide
Equity
Another page in this guide
Feudalism
Another page in this guide
Forest law
Another page in this guide
Homosexuality
A page in the Law Bod's LGBTQI Law online guide
International law to c1945
This is a separate Law Bod guide
Ireland: Legal History
A page in our guide to Irish legal resources
Judges
Another page in this guide
Labour and employment law: early forms
A page in this guide. Slavery and its abolition is a separate page in this guide.
Land law
Another page in this guide
Legal profession
Another page in this guide
Lex Mercatoria in medieval Europe
A page in the Law Bod guide to Legal History of Western Europe/Civil law tradition
Local legal officers
Another page in this guide
Magna Carta
Another page in this guide
Manorial law
Another page in this guide
Obligations: contract, restitution, tort
Another page in this guide
Poor law
Another page in this guide
Procedure
Star Chamber
Succession
Taxation in England
Another page in this guide
Treason
Another page in this guide
Welsh Law
Another page in this guide
Witchcraft & the law in early modern Europe & USA
This is a separate Bodleian Libguide
Women
Another page in this guide

If your focus is a particular period of English history please see the pages indexed under the Periods tab.