90 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



other legal business transacted by the hundred and 

 shire courts had, by the end of this period, passed into 

 the hands of the justices of the peace in petty or 

 quarter sessions, who, established towards the beginning 

 of the XlVth century, 1 became more and more im- 

 portant as time went on. A further share of judicial 

 business went to the high courts, which in this period 

 obtained an increased importance. 



The justices of the peace in quarter sessions began 

 also to obtain definite administrative duties. In 1530- 

 the care of the bridges on main roads was placed in 

 their hands, and from that time onwards they gradu- 

 ally secured more and more the control of county 

 government. On the other hand, the parish as a civil, 

 rather than as a purely religious organization, the 

 successor of the vill,3 was emerging at that time from 

 under the shadow of the decaying manor. This autho- 

 rity, which acted through its public assembly or vestry, 

 as it came to be called, is found in the XVth century 

 enjoying considerable power in the administration of 

 parish affairs, including in some cases the management 

 of property for the village community. Later there 

 fell upon it the duty of repairing the roads and the 

 responsibility of the poor, two important matters referred 

 to below. 



There seems to have been a tendency in mediaeval 

 times to include the repair of roads in the trinoda 



necessitas and throw responsibility for it 

 Roads. on the landholders ; but this responsibility 



was ill-defined and, in the XVth century, 

 when the growth of trade was followed by a demand 

 for better roads, there arose constantly a difficulty 



1 See Appendix, p. 176. 2 Ibid. p. 173. 3 Ibid. p. 163. 



