A HISTORY OF DORSET 



hundred. Any neglect in this respect was punished by a fine," but on one 

 occasion when the jurors concealed a theft before the justices they were 

 actually committed to gaol." On the other hand if the jurors of a hundred 

 presented pleas that were not within their competence they were again sub- 

 jected to a fine. They were probably not often sufficiently zealous to incur 

 this penalty, but in 1244 the justices amerced the hundred of Halstock on 

 this account, and again for having taken and detained without warrant a 

 chaplain who had been guilty of house-breaking.*" 



The verdict of the jurors at the eyre was checked by the presence of the 

 coroner. When the jurors presented the death of a woman whom they called 

 Isabel de Blandford, the coroner bore witness that her name was really Sibil, and a 

 general fine was exacted for a false presentment," and upon the same occasion 

 an amercement was levied because the jurors declared that the vill of Poor- 

 ton had presented a certain case in the county court, and the coroner denied 

 that it was so.*^ It was the coroner's duty also to view the body of anyone 

 who had met with a violent or accidental death, and all the vills of the neigh- 

 bourhood were expected to be present at the view on pain of a fine, which 

 was very frequently incurred.*' Upon one occasion the prior of Wareham 

 was charged with having buried Nicholas Miller who had been drowned in 

 the mill-stream at Westholme without this view. He was sentenced to 

 amercement, but denied the charge and put himself on the county, where- 

 upon the jurors found that he was not guilty, and proceedings were taken 

 against the original jury for concealing the truth in their presentment." At 

 the same eyre the vill of Winterborne Steeple was charged with having 

 buried a suicide before the coroner had arrived.*' 



The coroner himself was occasionally fined for default in his duty. It 

 was incumbent upon him when any accident occurred to attach the person, 

 and value the chattels of everyone who was even remotely connected with 

 the scene or instrument of the disaster. Thus, when Walter le Frere left his 

 cart outside the door of a house while he went inside, and in his absence the 

 mare which drew it ran over Matilda the daughter of John Forke, Walter 

 ought to have been arrested, instead of which he ran away, and the coroner, 

 who apparently made no attempt to recover him, was fined in consequence.*' 



In view of all these possibilities of amercement it is hardly surprising 

 that the profits of justice were a valuable source of crown revenue in the 

 Middle Ages. The sum, moreover, was swelled by the fact that suit of court 

 was a burden of which the more wealthy citizen was glad to rid himself by a 

 fine. Two instances of this occurred in 1 244. The first was the case of 

 the manor of Mayne Hospital, which did not appear by itself or in any 

 hundred before the justices in eyre ; it was subsequently testified that the 

 men of the manor were all freemen, and one Nicholas de Mayne appeared 

 and compounded for their collective default *' with a fine of i mark. The 

 second case was the yet more important one of the knights and Serjeants of 



" Assize R. 201, m. i, 5. 



" Ibid. 212, m. 1. Cf. also the ominous order to the sheriff in the case of Hamlin son of Ralph, 



quoted above, to inquire diligently who were the jurors in the first assize, ' and to have them on such 

 a day ' &c. 



"Ibid. 201, m. 3. »' Ibid. 201, m. 6</. *'Ibid. m. 5. 



"' Ibid. 2 1 2, m. 1 , 2, 4. " Ibid. 212, m. 6. " Ibid. m. 7 . 



'* Ibid. 212, m. 2 ; cf. m. 5 ; R. 206, m. 4. " Ibid. 201, m. 4</. 



238 



