By the Lord Verulam Viscount of S. Albons, &c.

LONDON,

Printed by the Assignes of IOHN
MOORE Esquire. 1635.

Cum Privilegio.

A TABLE

OF THE

CONTENTS OF THIS ENSUING TREATISE.

Page What the Use of the Law principally consisteth in ...... 207 Surety to keep the peace ..

207 Action of the case, for slander, battery, &c. ....

207 Appeal of murder given to the next of kin .

207 Manslaughter, and when a forfeiture of goods, and when not 208 Felo de se, felony by mischance, deodand .

208 Cutting out of tongues, and putting out of eyes, made felony ...

208 The office of the constable

208 Two high constables for every hundred, and one petty constable for every village.

209 The King's Bench first instituted, and in what matters they anciently had jurisdiction ....

.. 209 The court of Marshalsea erected, and its jurisdiction within

twelve miles of the chief tunnel of the king, which is
the full extent of the verge..

209 Sheriff's Tourn instituted upon the division of England into

counties: the charge of this court was committed to the
earl of the same county ....

210 Subdivision of the county courts into hundreds ...... 210 The charge of the county taken from the earls, and com

mitted yearly to such persons as it pleased the king .. 210 The sheriff is judge of all hundred courts not given away from the crown

210 County courts kept monthly by the sheriff .

210 The office of the sheriff

211 Hundred courts, to whom first granted

211

.... 212

Page

Lord of the hundred to appoint two high constables .. 211

Of what matters they inquire of in leets and law-days

211

Conservators of the peace, and what their office was

Conservators of the peace by virtue of their office ........ 212

Justices of peace ordained in lieu of conservators; of placing

and displacing of justices of peace by use delegated

from the king to the chancellor ...

.. 212

The power of the justice of peace to fine the offenders to the

crown, and not to recompense the party grieved ...... 212

Authority of the justices of peace, through whom ran all the

county services to the crown

213

Beating, killing, burning of houses ..

213

Attachments for surety of the peace

.. 213

Recognizance of the peace delivered by the justices at their

sessions..

.. 213

Quarter-sessions held by the justices of peace

.. 213

The authority of justices of the peace out of their sessions.. 214

Judges of assize came in place of the ancient judges in eyre,

about the time of R. II.

.. 214

England divided into six circuits, and two learned men in

the laws assigned by the king's commission to ride

twice a year through those shires allotted to that circuit,

for the trial of private titles to lands and goods, and all

treasons and felonies, which the county courts meddle

not in

.. 214

The authority of the judges in eyre translated by Parliament

to justices of assize ..

.. 215

The authority of the justices of assizes much lessened by the

Court of Common Pleas, erected in Henry III. time. . 215

The justices of assize have at this day five commissions by

which they sit, viz. 1. Oyer and Terminer. 2. Goal

Delivery

3. To take assizes. 4. To take Nisi Prius.

5. Of the
peace

.. 215

Book allowed to clergy for the scarcity of them to be dis-

posed in religious houses....

.. 217

The course the judges hold in their circuits in the execution

of their commission concerning the taking of Nisi Prius 219

The justices of the peace and the sheriff are to attend the

judges in their county ..

219

of property of lands to be gained by entry.

219

.