A HISTORY OF DORSET 



little doubt that there was a considerable poor and potentially criminal class 

 throughout the county. These were, in part, strangers who had wan- 

 dered from other counties, and were beyond the reach of that local police 

 organization which should normally have kept them in check." But out 

 of a total of some seventy criminals presented and convicted before thejustices 

 in eyre at Sherborne in 1244, about sixty were Dorset men, of whom 

 twenty-one owned chattels of under 10s. in value, and twenty-four others 

 had no chattels at all." Out of these forty-five, thirty were convicted of 

 theft, and the other fifteen of manslaughter, usually arising from a quarrel. 



These figures, together with the fact that in all only five freemen of 

 independent position were convicted at this eyre, and of these only one, whose 

 chattels were valued at i 3J. 4^. and a house, was charged with theft,"* suggest 

 that crime of this nature was generally the outcome of poverty, and that the 

 criminal class was chiefly recruited from the lower ranks of the villeins, on 

 whom hard times would naturally press with the greatest severity. That 

 the 5-acre tenant lived at no great distance from the verge of destitution is 

 implied in an entry in the survey of the Shaftesbury Abbey manor of Chesel- 

 bourne, to the effect that the cottars used to owe service in the brew-house, 

 but had been excused for some time on account of their poverty." 



Theft, burglary, cattle stealing, murder, and manslaughter seem alike to have 

 been punishable with outlawry or hanging,^" and as the former either implied 

 exile or the liability to pursuit and death at the hands of the first comer, the 

 death rate must have been considerably raised by this means. The prevalence 

 of epilepsy, constantly ending fatally," must also have tended to check the 

 increase in population, while death by drowning under a mill-wheel, by being 

 burnt alive, or by other accident seems to have been of common occurrence.** 



The presentment of all these offences and accidents before the justices 

 itinerant implies a degree of common action which it is difficult to realize;** 

 but the whole of the local government and police administration of an English 

 county in the Middle Ages was based upon a system of joint responsibility, 

 starting at the narrow apex of the tithing or mainpast, and broadening down 

 through the vill and the hundred to the wide basis of the county, which 

 appeared collectively in the monthly county court, or at rare intervals in yet 

 more representative form before the justices in eyre.** 



The tithing was sometimes a unit within the vill, and sometimes was 

 commensurate with the vill itself, as in the case of Hooke, where the reaper '° 

 was attached by the tithingman, and the whole tithing for breach of the 



" E.g. Assize R. 201, m. I, &c. " Ihid. passim. 



** Ibid. m. 7. Possibly some of the criminals who were in mainpast were free, but from the context 

 in most case.s this seems doubtful. They were, however, for the most part charged with brawling rather 

 than theft, and do not affect the argument. 



"Harl. MS. 61, fol. 59. 



^ Assize R. 201 m. 1, l d. ; 206, m. 3, 7, 8, 14. 



" Ibid. 206, m. 8, 9</. &c. ; 212 m. 7, &c. 



" Ibid. 201, m. 2 /, 51/., 212 passim. 



^ It extended beyond the sphere of mere police duties ; upon one occasion the * community of the vill ' 

 of Fordington went so far in collective action as to sue a m.in who had offended it, by attorney, in the 

 manorial court [P.R.O Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 169, No. 26, m. 6, 7]. 



" Cf. Pollock and Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law, i, 202, 529, &c. 



" The Dorset reaper, messor, was apparently sometimes a person of considerable importance. At 

 Cranborne he was highly paid (see above), and elsewhere he acted as rent collector [Mins. Accts. (Gen. Sen), 

 bdle. 834, No. 31] and keeper of the manor [Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane), 11 192]. Possibly in this instance 

 his position had afforded an excuse for extortion and violence. 



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