Every heir having land is bound by the binding acts of his Knight's service in capite is a tenure de persona regis.... 225 Grand serjeantry, petty serjeantry... 225 The institution of soccage in capite, and that it is now turned What attainders shall give the escheat to the lord...... 228 Prayer of clergy... 229 He that standeth mute forfeiteth no lands, except for trea A person attainted may purchase, but it shall be to the king's use.... 230 Property of lands by conveyance is first distributed into estates, for years, for life, in tail, and fee simple..... 231 Lease for years go to the executors, and not to the heirs... 231 Leases, by what means they are forfeitable .... What livery of seisin is, and how it is requisite to every 231 estate for life ... 232 Of the new device, called a perpetuity, which is an entail with an addition 234 .... The inconveniences of these perpetuities 234 The last and greatest estate in land is fee simple... What a fine is .... What recoveries are. What a use is ... A conveyance to stand seised to a use Of the continuance of land by will... Page 235 235 236 236 237 238 239 Property in goods: 1. By gift. 2. By sale. 3. By stealing. 4. By waving. 5. By straying. 6. By shipwreck. 7. By forfeiture. 8. By executorship 242 By letters of administration .... 245 Where the intestate had bona notabilia in divers diocesses, 245 245 246 Debts due in equal degree of record, the executor may pay which of them he please before suit be commenced... 246 But it is otherwise with administrators... 246 Property by legacy 247 Legacies are to be paid before debts by shop books, bills unsealed, or contracts by word.... 247 An executor may pay which legacy he will first. Or if the executors do want, they may sell any legacy to pay debts .... ... 247 When a will is made, and no executor named, administration is to be committed cum testamento annexo...... 247 THE USE OF THE LAW, AND WHEREIN IT PRINCIPALLY CONSISTETH. THE use of the law consisteth principally in these three I. To secure men's persons from death and violence. and infamy. For safety of persons, the law provideth that any man Surety to keep standing in fear of another may take his oath before a jus- the peace. tice of peace, that he standeth in fear of his life, and the justice shall compel the other to be bound with sureties to keep the peace. If any man beat, wound, or maim another, or give false Action of the scandalous words that may touch his credit, the law giveth case, for slander, battery, thereupon an action of the case, for the slander of his good &c. name; and an action of battery, or an appeal of maim, by which recompense shall be recovered, to the value of the hurt, damage, or danger. next of kin. If any man kill another with malice, the law giveth an Appeal of murappeal to the wife of the dead, if he had any, or to the next der given to the of kin that is heir in default of a wife, by which appeal the defendant convicted is to suffer death, and to lose all his lands and goods. But if the wife or heir will not sue or be compounded withal, yet the king is to punish the offence by indictment or presentment of a lawful inquest and trial of the offenders before competent judges; where Manslaughter, and when a forfeiture of goods, and when not. Felon. de se. Felony by mischance.j Deodand. Cutting out of tongues, and upon being found guilty, he is to suffer death, and to lose his lands and goods. If one kill another upon a sudden quarrel, this is manslaughter, for which the offender must die, except he can read; and if he can read, yet must he lose his goods, but no lands. And if a man kill another in his own defence, he shall not lose his life, nor his lands, but he must lose his goods, except the party slain did first assault him, to kill, rob, or trouble him by the highway side, or in his own house, and then he shall lose nothing. And if a man kill himself, all his goods and chattels are forfeited, but no lands. If a man kill another by misfortune, as shooting an arrow at a butt or mark, or casting a stone over a house, or the like, this is loss of his goods and chattels, but not of his lands, nor life. If a horse, or cart, or a beast, or any other thing do kill a man, the horse, beast, or other thing, is forfeited to the crown, and is called a deodand, and usually granted and allowed by the king to the Bishop Almner, as goods are of those that kill themselves. The cutting out of a man's tongue, or putting out his putting out of eyes maliciously, is felony; for which the offender is to suffer death, and lose his lands and goods. eyes, made felony. The office of But for that all punishment is for example's sake; it is good to see the means whereby offenders are drawn to their punishment; and first for the matter of the peace. THE ancient laws of England planted here by the Conqueror were, that there should be officers of two sorts in all the parts of this realm to preserve the peace : 1. Constabularii 2. Conservatores } Pacis. The office of the constable was, to arrest the parties that the constable. he had seen breaking the peace, or in fury ready to break the peace, or was truly informed by others, or by their own confession, that they had freshly broken the peace; which persons he might imprison in the stocks, or in his own. house, as his or their quality required, until they had become bounden with sureties to keep the peace; which obligation from thenceforth was to be sealed and delivered to the constable to the use of the king. And that the constable was to send to the king's Exchequer or Chancery, from whence process should be awarded to levy the debt, if the peace were broken. But the constable could not arrest any, nor make any put in bond upon complaint of threatening only, except they had seen them breaking the peace, or had come freshly after the peace was broken. Also, these constables should keep watch about the town for the apprehension of rogues and vagabonds, and night-walkers, and eves-droppers, scouts, and such like, and such as go armed. And they ought likewise to raise hue and cry against murderers, manslayers, thieves, and rogues. Of this office of constable there were high constables, two 2. High conof every hundred; petty constables, one in every village; stables for every hundred. they were, in ancient time, all appointed by the sheriff of the 1. Petty conshire yearly, in his court called the Sheriff's Tourn, and stable for every there they received their oath. But at this day they are village. appointed either in the law-day of that precinct wherein they serve, or else by the high constable in the sessions of the peace. stituted, and in tion. The Sheriff's Tourn is a court very ancient, incident to his The King's office. At the first, it was erected by the Conqueror, and Bench first incalled the King's Bench, appointing men studied in the what matters knowledge of the laws to execute justice, as substitutes to they anciently him in his name, which men are to be named, Justiciarii ad had jurisdicplacita coram Rege assignati. One of them being Capitalis Justiciarius called to his fellows; the rest in number as pleaseth the king, of late but three Justiciarii, holden by patent. In this court every man above twelve years of age was to take his oath of allegiance to the king, if he were bound, then his lord to answer for him. In this court the constables were appointed and sworn; breakers of the peace punished by fine and imprisonment, the parties beaten or hurt recompensed upon complaints of damages; all appeals of murder, maim, robbery, decided; contempts against the crown, public annoyances against the people, treasons and felonies, and all other matters of wrong, betwixt party and party, for lands and goods. But the king seeing the realm grow daily more and Court of Marmore populous, and that this one court could not dispatch shalsea erected, and its jurisdicall, did first ordain that his marshal should keep a court tion within for controversies arising within the virge; which is within twelve miles of twelve miles of the chiefest tunnel of the court, which did the chief tunnel of the king, but ease the King's Bench in matters only concerning which is the full debts, covenants, and such like, of those of the king's extent of the household only, never dealing in breaches of the peace, or virge. |