MEDIEVAL JUSTICE AND COURTS. 13 1 



Robert Goodyer gives eighteen pence for licence to marry 

 his daughter Emma. 



8 Ed. III. 1334. John Scolasse comes to court and pays for 

 licence to betroth Alice, daughter of William Brown, to go 

 and return according to his will, whithersoever he wishes, 

 with his chattels, and all his goods, moveable and immove- 

 able ten shillings. 



Robert, son of Robert Heyne, admits that he is bound to 

 his mother, Mabil, in an annuity for her whole life of one 

 quarter of wheat, one of peas, and one of barley, and forty 

 pence, and finds as sureties Roger Pock and William Heyne, 

 who will pay if he does not. 



Robert Heyne complains that in his plea for work done 

 for Nicholas Brown and Isold his wife, that they have often 

 made default, and cannot be distrained except in their house. 

 He is permitted to enter their house to distrain. 



Jurors, to present offences and assess values, are appointed 

 in both these courts, extracts from the procedure of which 

 have been quoted as a specimen of the manner in which the 

 police of the middle ages was carried out. Besides these 

 officers there were always two aletasters, whose duty it was to 

 try the strength and genuineness of every cask of ale which 

 was to be broached for sale. The concession of these per- 

 sonages was absolutely necessary before any part of the con- 

 tents could be disposed of, and fines for breaches of this 

 regulation are frequent and heavy. When the fines were laid 

 on minors and married women, as they constantly were for 

 fighting, brawling, and defamation, the adult male relations 

 of these culprits were made to guarantee the liquidation of 

 the amercement. 



The manor court, as we see by the foregoing extracts from 

 the Holywell and Kibworth registers, besides its police regu- 

 lations, was competent, by the issue of a distress, to secure to 

 its suitors the payment of debts. But it does not ever appear 

 to have had cognizance of real actions, at least after the 

 enactment of the statute Quia emptores. The reason assigned 



K i 



