The New Murrey and Blue blog

Does anyone know what a “murder penny or pennies” is/was? I have come upon the phrase in the Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II, 1383, and although I’ve looked around, I can’t find any hint of what these pennies might be. All I get are modern detective novels! Help?

Here’s the relevant part of the Roll entry: “….that they and their successors shall have therein all forfeitures as well of men and tenants of others as of their own, the chattels of felons and fugitives, the year and a day and the waste, and murder pennies, that they shall have jurisdiction of causes whatsoever as well in those hundreds as in towns and manors….”

Two friends have offered the same explanation. Murder pennies are “something similar to the Anglo-Saxon wergild or wergild…a payment or sort of compensation paid to the family of an injured party by the perpetrator” and “the price a murderer had to pay to compensate the victim’s family”.

This sounds spot-on, but is there a further explanation? Any suggestions will be gratefully received!