VII.—Original Documents illustrative of the Administration of the Criminal Law in the time of Edward I.

Francis Morgan Nichols Esq.

doi:10.1017/S0261340900004586

VII.—Original Documents illustrative of the Administration of the Criminal Law in the time of Edward I.

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

Francis Morgan Nichols Esq.

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I propose to lay before the Society this evening some documents which appear to possess a certain interest as illustrating the administration of the Criminal Law in the reign of Edward I. One of these papers relates to the tribunal held under the presidency of the Justices of Trailbaston, the institution of which is one of the obscure events in our legal annals. I have written a few observations with a view to explain the nature of these papers, and their bearing upon the legal and social history of the country.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , 1866 , pp. 89 - 105

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900004586 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1866

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^{page 90 note a} Palgrave, English Commonwealth, vol. ii.p. 123.

^{page 90 note b} See Britton (Oxford, 8vo. 1865), vol. i. p. 181, note.

^{page 90 note c} Bracton, f. 122b, 143, 144.

^{page 90 note d} Britton, vol. i. p. 8.

^{page 90 note e} Bracton, f. 121, 122; Britton, vol. i. p. 8.

^{page 90 note f} Bracton, f. 146, 150b.

^{page 90 note g} Britton, vol. i. p. 100.

^{page 91 note a} Britton, vol. i. p. 103,107,124.

^{page 92 note a} Stat. Winton. (13 Edw. I. Stat. 12) c. 2.

^{page 92 note b} The Statute of Winchester was repealed by Stat. 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 27.

^{page 92 note c} Coke, Institutes, part ii. p. 569.

^{page 92 note d} MS. Dd. vii. 6. This is a very fine collection of statutes and law treatises, which appears, from internal evidence, to have been prepared for the use of Sir John de Longueville, a lawyer employed in the business of the Crown in the reign of Edward II. See Britton, Introduction, p, 61. It is remarkable that this manuscript is described in the Record Commission Report of 1837 as of the time of Henry VI., and in the Report of 1819, made with a view to the publication of the Statutes of the Realm, as a manuscript of little value.

^{page 92 note e} 16 July, 1291.

^{page 92 note f} The name “Bradwell's Head Barn” may be found in the Ordnance Map between the hamlet of Farncot and Pinnock Farm, about two miles from the site of the abbey of Hayles. These places are now in Kingsgate hundred, but in Domesday Book Fernecote and Pignoscire are described as in the hundred of Holeford, and Heile as in Gretestan hundred.

^{page 93 note a} I append copies of these writs, for which I am indebted to Henry Bradshaw, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and of this Society. The admission of proof per legem mercatoriam, as binding upon the hundred, is remarkable, and the kind of evidence intended requires farther explanation. Another observable point in these writs is, that the period within which the compensation was to be made is half a year; and in the first writ, where the effect of the statute is set forth, it is recited as if that period was mentioned in it. I refer to this as illustrating a question which exists as to the proper reading of the Statute of Winchester, the time named in the copy found upon the Statute Eoll being forty days (xl. iourƷ), while in a small Roll preserved in the Exchequer, and in many early manuscript copies, it is half a year. See Statutes of the Bealm (Record Commission), vol. i. p. 96, note; Saunders's Reports, vol. ii. p. 375. Fleta (which was written about the 20th of Edward I.) refers to the statute as naming the longer period; and Lord Coke, relying upon that authority, says that the book of statutes then lately printed is mistaken in mentioning forty days, and should be reformed accordingly. (Coke, Institutes, Part II. 569.) The language of these writs, issued so early after the date of the statute, is confirmatory of the reading approved by Coke.

^{page 94 note a} Fcedera, vol. ii. p. 960; Parliamentary Writs, vol. i. p. 407.

^{page 94 note b} Eot. Parl. vol. i. p. 178.

^{page 94 note c} Foss, Judges of England, vol. iii. p. 28–38.

^{page 95 note a} MS. in Cambridge University Library, Dd. vii. 6. Another copy of the same “Articles” is to be found in Hargrave MS. 336 (in the British Museum), where the document is entitled “Les Articles de Traynebastoñ.” J have looked through this copy, and have added at the foot of the copy hereafter printed the principal varieties of reading found in it. While preparing this paper for the press, I have found that the Articles of Trailbaston have been printed from a less perfect copy in the edition of the Chronicle of Walter de Hemingburgh (or Hemingford), published by the English Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 237. In Hearne's edition of Walter de Hemingford, two blank pages occur in the place of these Articles, vol. ii. p. 211.

^{page 95 note b} Parliamentary Writs, vol. i. p. 407.

^{page 95 note c} Fcedera, vol. ii. p. 955.

^{page 95 note d} The “Articuli inquisitionis Super Statutum Wyntonie,” printed in the old collections of Statutes as a Statute of the 34th year of Edward L, and by the Record Commission as a Statute temporis incerti, is an instrument of the same nature as the “Articuli Lincolnie.”

^{page 96 note a} Statute of Westminster I. (3 Edw. I.) c. 10.

^{page 97 note a} Rot. Claus. 34 Edw. I. m. 9.

^{page 97 note b} Cambridge University Library, MS. Dd. vii. 6.

^{page 98 note a} The date upon the Close Roll is June 16, 34 Edw. I.

^{page 98 note b} See Archæologia, Vol. XXXIX. p. 216.

^{page 102 note a_a} am. H.

^{page 102 note b} Edward add. H.

^{page 102 note c} t'res et add. H.

^{page 102 note d_d} et lour force sustiner H.

^{page 102 note e_e} entre H.

^{page 102 note f_f} lour p'mer tort continuer et meintener p' force H.

^{page 102 note g} destourbe H.

^{page 102 note h} volūte H.

^{page 102 note i_i} fount les bateries H.

^{page 102 note k_k} om. H.

^{page 102 note l} et add. E.

^{page 102 note m_m} lesser eus en pees H.

^{page 102 note n_n} et si il H.

^{page 102 note o_o} om. H

^{page 103 note a_a} la Corone H.

^{page 103 note b_b} ne demaunder H.

^{page 103 note c_c} larcines H.

^{page 103 note d_d} pⁱueement ou ap'tement H.

^{page 103 note e_e} batre H.

^{page 103 note f} de mesons add. H.

^{page 103 note g} a lele gētƷ, add. H.

^{page 104 note a} en feires et en marcheƷ add. H.

^{page 104 note b_b} et les gentƷ de vie et de membre manasent H.

^{page 104 note c_c} lour gre H.

^{page 104 note d_d} om. H.

^{page 104 note e_e} ou en vin ou en chiuals H.

^{page 104 note f} quod pro pace nostra firmius conservanda Rot. Clans.

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VII.—Original Documents illustrative of the Administration of the Criminal Law in the time of Edward I.

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