Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 109 



Epiphany, 20th Elizabeth : — 



" Md delivered to William Staples servant the second of February 1577 one 

 Record of the Assizes holden at Sarum in Anno 15° Elizabethse Reginoe and the 

 Record of the Assizes in Anno 16° Elizabethse Reginse ; and also copy of one 

 indictment wherein one Thomas Holdvray is indicted, with a certiorari to certify 

 the same the fees whereof are unpaid." 



Trinity, 20th Elizabeth :— 



"Md that Robt Gawen dothe ow me for my fees iiijs yjd." 



Epiphany, 21st Elizabeth :— 



" Md the fees for the recognizance is unpaid : comit ad gaol." 



But encouraging incidents relieved these gloomy experiences : 

 on the same page with the last entry stands another to the effect 

 that " John Townsend is releasyd of the peace and paid his fees." 



It must have been the clerk of the peace's clerk who penned the 

 following : — 



" Md that I putt my Mr. in remembrance at the next Assiss that process be 

 made against all such as weere presented at Hyndon for selling ale without 

 licence." 



And the next, in which his zeal for his employer's purse grew 



impatient of court Latinity, and betook itself to the vernacular. 



Trinity, 21st Elizabeth :— 



"Finis Petri Powlden Will™ Smyth et Joh' Busslopp taxatur per curiam 

 cujuslibet eorum iij* iiije? — the same was paied by my Mr. for ye Justices diet 

 and the said parties promised to pay it againe at my M'''. coming whome." 



Among the miscellaneous offences not before specified, were 

 charges for killing pigeons with a net; for permitting escapes 

 from prison, (Fisherton) or from custody ; for buying corn in the 

 field: for sleeping by day and watching at night, &c., &c. 

 On some accusations, possibly political, of which the particulars are 

 lost with the great rolls, very heavy bail was on one occasion 

 demanded, being no less than £400 from the principle and £200 from 

 each of two sureties. At the same sessions viz., Epiphany, 29th 

 Elizabeth : — 



" The Mayor and the Constable of the Burgesses of Marlborough at the mercy 

 of the Court in the sum of £20 by the judgment of the Court because they have 



