80 Bradford-upon-Avon. * [The Manor. 
Courts to present all Wayfes, Estrayes, and Trespasses committed 
within the Hundred, and do other services of the Court. And at the 
Three- Weeken Court for the Borough the Portreeve, and with him 
the Burgesses of the Town, ought to appear to witness with him his 
presentment. The other Tythingmen with their Reevemen, which 
dwell more remote from the place where the Hundred Three- 
Weeken Court is kept, do pay yearly, at Michas Law-day, fines for 
respite of their suite to the said Courts by custom.” v 
Il. Tue Court Leer, anp View or FRANKPLEDGE. 
The Courts which we have hitherto been describing took cogni- 
zance of matters more or less connected with the Lord’s interest. 
The Courts Leet, however, had to deal with matters involving the 
interests of the entire community. They are said to have derived 
their distinctive appellation from the Anglo Saxon word ‘/eéd,’ 
which signifies ‘people,’ as though the ‘populi Curiz,’—the ‘Folk- 
mote’—in contradistinction to the ‘Hall-mote’ (or Court Baron), 
so designated because the free-tenants, being generally few in num- 
ber, often held their meeting in the Lord’s hall. ‘View of Frank- 
pledge”! meant originally the examination, or view, of the ‘fri8-borh’ 
i.e. the ‘peace-pledges,’ or guarantees for his good and peaceable be- 
haviour, of which every man, not especially privileged, was obliged 
anciently to have nine, who were bound that he should always be 
forthcoming to answer any complaint. ‘In all Vills throughout 
the kingdom, all men are bound to be in guarantee by tens, 
so that if one of the ten men offend, the other nine may hold 
him to right;”—such, in a few words, in the language of the 
laws attributed to Edward the Confessor, is a description of 
this system of ‘mutual guarantee’ for the peace and good order- 
ing of those who lived within the Hundred. “Tts object was,” 
as Kemble well expresses it, “that each man should be in 
pledge or surety ( borh) as well to his fellow man, as to the state, 
1 «The corruption of the word Fri8-borh, that is, ‘pacis plegium’ or peace- 
pledge, into Freo-borh which was soon translated ‘liberum plegium,’ that is, 
free pledge or frank-pledge, explains how the present form of the word has been 
adopted. To understand the institution, it is necessary to bear in mind the 
distinction between these words.” —Kemble’s ‘Saxons in England’ i. 249, 
a. 
ee oe 
