lO ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



(i) The form of their commissions. — From the point 

 of view of the jurisdiction of the justices responsible for 

 the enforcement of the statutes of labourers and. there- 

 fore, also from the point of view of the form of their 

 commissions, four periods are distinguishable for the 

 reign of Edward III, three of which fall within the 

 decade 1349-1359." 



I. Of these the first, running from 18 June, 1349, the 

 date of the ordinance of labourers, to February, 1351, 

 the date of the statute of labourers, or more strictly to 

 15 March, the date of the first commission issued as a 

 result of the statute,^ was a period of various administra- 

 tive experiments. The ordinance, while specifying the 

 duties of existing local officials, bailiffs, constables, etc., 

 merely refers in the victuallers' clause ^ to iusticiariis per 

 nos assignandis, with no account of their powers; one 

 must turn to chancery enrollments for information as to 

 these justices. On 20 February, 1350, a commission for 

 seven counties was issued for the preservation of the 

 peace and the enforcement of the ordinance of labourers ; ^ 

 on 15 June a commission for the enforcement of the 

 ordinance was issued by the bishop of Durham for five 

 districts within his palatinate ;5 commissions were also 



'For the fourth period, see the article just mentioned, 526-527. 



*App., 34. 'App., II. 



* " De pace conseruanda;" app., a- As I am here dealing with 

 justices I have omitted from the discussion in the text the two earliest 

 recorded commissions issued in pursuance of the ordinance, namely, 

 one of 6 Dec, 1349 to the chancellor of the university and to the mayor 

 of Oxford, app., ^Zt and one of 8 Dec. to the mayor and sheriffs of 

 London, app., 2)i , note i. 



*App., 27, and note 3. Mr. Lapsley in T/ie County Palatine of 

 Djirhatn, 257, note 3, refers to a commission to execute the statute of 

 labourers in Rot. Hatfield, ann. i, m id, curs. 30; evidently by an 

 error, as the first year cf Bishop Hatfield's pontificate was 1345, and 

 therefore previous to the labour legislation. 



