OFFICE OF CONSTABLES. 3G3 



2. The sheriff hath authority to hold two several courts 

 of distinct natures : 1. The turn, because he keepeth his 

 turn and circuit about the shire, holdeth the same court in 

 several places, wherein he doth inquire of all offences per 

 petrated against the common law, and not forbidden by any 

 statute or act of parliament; and the jurisdiction of this 

 court is derived from justice distributive, and is for cri 

 minal offences, and held twice every year. 



The county court, wherein he doth determine all petty 

 and small causes civil oinder the value of forty shillings, 

 arising within the said county, and therefore it is called the 

 county court. 



The jurisdiction of this court is derived from justice com 

 mutative, and held every month. The office of the sheriff 

 is annual, and in the king s gift, whereof he is to have a 

 patent. 



The Office of Escheator. 



Every shire hath an officer called an escheator, which is 

 to attend the king s revenue, and to seize into his majesty s 

 hands all lands escheated, and goods or lands forfeited, and 

 therefore is called escheator ; and he is to inquire by good 

 inquest of the death of the king s tenant, and to whom the 

 lands are descended, and to seize their bodies and lands for 

 ward, if they be within age, and is accountable for the 

 same; he is named or appointed by the lord treasurer of 

 England. 



The Office of Coroner. 



Two other officers there are in every county called coro 

 ners ; and by their office they are to inquest in what man 

 ner, and by whom every person, dying of a violent death, 

 came so to their death ; and to enter the same of record ; 

 which is matter criminal, and a plea of the crown: and 

 therefore they are called coroners, or crowners, as one hath 

 written, because their inquiry ought to be in corona populi. 



These officers are chosen by the freeholders of the shire, 

 by virtue of a writ out of the chancery de coronatore eli- 

 gendo : and of them I need not to write more, because these 

 officers are in use every where. 



General Observations touching Constables, Gaolers, and 

 Bailiffs. 



Forasmuch as every shire is divided into hundreds, there 

 are also by the statute of 34 H. VIII. cap. 26, ordered and 



