CHAPTER VI. 



MEDIEVAL JUSTICE AND COURTS. 



THE courts whose operation is alluded to in the accounts 

 which have come before me are those of the justices in eyre, 

 those of trailbaston, the coroner's court, and the manor 

 court. 



In 1288 Roger Bigod was either suitor or defendant in an 

 action brought before the justices in eyre at Chichester, and 

 seems to have been delayed for a long time in getting sentence 

 in his case, vol. ii. p. 609. ii. But the most singular illus- 

 tration of the course of justice, if indeed the case was tried 

 before these judges, are the charges which are found in the 

 Gamlingay bailiff's account for two years successively, viz. 



1344, i345 a - 



Merton college, represented by its warden, had an action with 

 one Wm. de S. George. Some of the particulars in the account 

 are lost in consequence of the decayed condition of the ori- 

 ginal, but if I am right in interpreting the items, a suit for 

 realty must have been attended by expenses of a very onerous 

 nature, and of a very suspicious character. 



The sheriff receives in the first place what seems like a 

 bribe for supplying the college with a c good panel,' the 

 officials and the jury are feasted at Cambridge on the first 

 Sunday in Lent, some of the inquisition are presented with 

 spurs, or perhaps shoes, and presents are made to divers 



8 Vol. ii. pp. 614. ii., 615. i. 



