By the Rev. W. P. 8. Bingham. 91 
Whilst he was in Ireland the administration of justice was not 
the only thing which engaged his attention. As a true archzologist 
he studied the history of the past with a view to the advancement 
of the future. He collected the annals of John Clynne, a friar 
minor of Kilkenny, and the annals of Rosse and Clonmell. All 
these he caused to be transcribed, but his professional engagements 
prevented their preparation for the press. They afterwards fell into 
the hands of Henry, Earl of Bath. Extracts from them are in the 
Dublin College Library, but the original will probably be found at 
Longleat. Sir James Ley also wrote some treatises on heraldry and 
antiquarian subjects, which are included in Hearue’s Collections in 
the Bodleian Library. These collections are in one hundred and 
forty-five MS. volumes, and as selections from them are being 
published by the Oxford Historical Society, under the editorship of 
Mr. Doble, of Worcester, it may be hoped that some of them may 
yet see the light. 
Sir James did not long hold the office of Lord Chief Justice of 
Treland, for the King found that he had need of him at home. The 
work which he had lent his aid to accomplish was so successful that, 
according to Sir John Davis, in the space of nine years greater 
advances were made towards the reformation of Ireland than in the 
four hundred and forty years, which had elapsed since its first 
conquest. 
The work for which King James wanted him at home was the 
Court of Wards and Liveries, of which he was made Attorney- 
General in 1609. This court, which was established in the thirty- 
second year of Henry VIII., had some very difficult and important 
questions to decide. Many estates were then held by their proprietors 
as tenants of the King, and when a tenant died, a jury was em- 
panelled to ascertain whether the tenancy was only for life, in which 
case it reverted to the Crown; or if the tenant died without heirs, 
for then it would belong to the King by escheat ; or if he be attainted 
of treason, whereby his estate is forfeited to the Crown. If the 
purchaser of the land is an alien that is another cause of forfeiture, 
and if the heir is an idiot or a minor, the King becomes the guardian 
of his person and his lands. ‘This court was abolished at the 
