OFFICE OF CONSTABLES. 361 



9. Question. What difference is there betwixt the high 

 constables and petty constables ? 



Answer. Their authority is the same in substance, dif 

 fering only in the extent ; the petty constable serving only 

 for one town, parish, or borough; the head constable for 

 the whole hundred : nor is the petty constable subordinate 

 to the head constable for any commandment that proceeds 

 from his own authority ; but it is used, that the precepts of 

 the justices be delivered unto the high constables, who, 

 being few in number, may better attend the justices, and 

 then the head constables, by virtue thereof, make their pre 

 cepts over to the petty constables. 



10. Question. Whether a constable may appoint a de 

 puty ? 



Ansiver. In case of necessity a constable may appoint a 

 deputy, or in default thereof, the steward of the court-leet 

 may ; which deputy ought to be sworn before the said 

 steward. 



The constable s office consists in three things : 



1. Conservation of the peace. 



2. Serving precepts and warrants. 



3. Attendance for the execution of statutes. 



Of the Jurisdiction of Justices itinerant in the Principality 

 of Wales. 



1. They have power to hear and determine all criminal 

 causes, which are called, in the laws of England, pleas of 

 the crown ; and herein they have the same jurisdiction that 

 the justices have in the court of the King s Bench. 



2. They have power to hear and determine all civil causes, 

 which in the laws of England are called common pleas, and 

 to take knowledge of all fines levied of lands or heredita 

 ments, without suing any dedimus potestatem ; and herein 

 they have the same jurisdiction that the justices of the 

 Common Pleas do execute at Westminster. 



3. They have power also to hear and determine all assizes 

 upon disseisin of lands or hereditaments, wherein they 

 equal the jurisdiction of the justices of assize. 



4. Justices of oyer and terminer therein may hear all 

 notable violences and outrages perpetrated within their 

 several precincts in the said principality of Wales. 



The prothonotary s office is to draw all pleadings, and These offices 

 entereth and engrosseth all the records and judgments i n a fe in the king s 

 all trivial causes. 



The clerk of the crown, his office is to draw and engross 



