just in case there is plague…
So I went looking for some good Justice of the Peace jokes, you know to lighten things up a little. And, as these things happen, wound up looking for perhaps the earliest compendium of jokes by a JP entitled Sir John Fielding’s jests; or, new fun for the parlour and kitchen. It was printed in 1781 and I was surprised I couldn’t find a copy anywhere.
Then I got stuck in the rabbit hole of public domain materials and found this page from A compleat guide for justices of the peace (read it here) from back in 1707. As I mentioned yesterday, the office dates back to the 1360’s when things like plague were a bigger deal than they are now (and other stuff, bastards and buggery were the things I noted) so you get to do things like this…
Appointing plague-keepers! Nothing so exciting anymore.
And back to the topic at hand, here is what passes for a JP joke
Q. A woman from New York married ten different men from that city, yet she did not break any laws. None of these men died and she never divorced. How was this possible?
A. She was a Justice of the Peace!
