TO BE TRIED IN STAFFORD COURT, verb. phr. (old).—To be beaten or ill-treated. Hence STAFFORD LAW = violence, lynch law.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Braccesca licenza, as we say STAFFORD’S LAW.
1599. BRETON, Wil of Wit, 2, ‘The Scholler and Souldier.’ Among souldiers, STAFFORD LAW, martiall law, killing or hanging, is soon learned.
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Il a este au festin de Martin baston, he hath had A TRIALL IN STAFFORD COURT, or hath received Jacke Drums intertainment.
1647. MILES CORBET, A Most Learned and Eloquent Speech [Harleian Miscellany, II., 273]. We have unlawfully erected marshal law, club law, STAFFORD LAW, and such lawless laws as make most for treason, rebellion, murder, sacrilege, ruin, and plunder.
