SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



profits of the hundred courts. 1 Here, too, no great man could override local 

 tradition. It was the whole county which ' declared ' to the king's judges 

 * its own special customs,' as to the methods of presenting Englishry, 8 the 

 privilege? of special districts such as the Forest of Dean, &c.,* while elected 

 juries of various kinds played a prominent part in the decision of cases. All 

 difficult civil cases required to be settled through an assize of twelve sworn 

 men ; and in criminal cases, by the thirteenth century, the ordeal was also 

 being superseded by trial by a jury of neighbours, usually the same as the 

 jury of presentment, but sometimes assisted by four neighbouring townships. 

 This method, known as ' putting oneself upon one's country,' was not how- 

 ever absolutely obligatory, 4 and in a few flagrant cases a criminal was hanged 

 without either trial or ordeal, as when a murderer confessed his guilt by 

 breaking prison and taking sanctuary at Newnham in 1221,' or was taken 

 red-handed ; * but generally one or other method was employed. The 

 form of procedure would run thus : 



Philip of Egham acknowledges himself a thief, and accuses William, son of Robert of 

 Dimescherche, as his accomplice in stealing two horses, two cows and a mare in the fields 

 of Littleton ; he offers to prove it by his body. William comes and denies the whole by 

 his body, but offers no proof, and is not in pledge, nor does any man speak for him ; they 

 go to the duellum, and Philip is defeated, and therefore hung. 7 



Hanging does not appear to have been a penalty at all commonly inflicted. 

 At the eyre of 1221, the records of which we have been quoting, some two 

 or three hundred cases of homicide were presented (probably an unusual 

 number, as at least seven years had elapsed since the last eyre), but only 

 fourteen persons were hanged and one mutilated, while about a hundred 

 ' abjured the country ' and were outlawed. 8 Thus Thomas Moraunt of Kifts- 

 gate hundred who has killed Henry Baldewyn's son and fled to the church, 

 acknowledges his guilt and abjures the country.' There are innumerable 

 entries to the effect that robbery and murder have been committed ' by 

 persons unknown ; no one is suspected by the jury.' (Some jurors had 

 evidently a very loose memory for crimes; in 1221 those of Blidsloe 

 hundred could remember nothing to present ; their verdict was then ' com- 

 mitted to them to provide for it,' and after a brief interval, fourteen crimes 

 were recalled to their minds.) 10 With regard to the murder fine, Glouces- 

 tershire had a few special rules. Proof of Englishry had to be given by 

 two males on the father's side, and one on the mother's ; u a woman's evidence 

 was rejected ; " the town of Gloucester was exempt, as was the forest region 

 beyond the Severn (' Non jacet murdrum, ultra Sabrinam'). 18 Accidental 

 death did not, of course, give rise to the ' murdrum,' though the Sheriff 

 Engelard did exact it on one occasion, when a boy was found drowned 

 in Coin Rogers mill-dam. 1 * Usually the judgement given was ' death by 



Sec Gkuc. Pleat of the Crown, passim. 



Presentment of Englishry. By a statute of William I every township was fined for a murder committed 

 within its boundaries, unless the victim was proved to be an Englishman. 



Ghuc. Pleat of the Crovtn, Nos. 119, 128, 183. * Ibid. No. 213. 



Ibid. No. 316. 'Ibid. No. 174. 



Ibid. No. 73. ' In Gloucestershire anyone might kill an outlaw ; ibid. Introd. xxix. 



Ibid. No. 8. " Ibid. Nos. 388-401. 



" Ibid. No. i. "Ibid. No. 119. 



" Ibid. Nos. 105 and 450. " Ibid. No. 92. 



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