THE JUSTICES OF LABOURERS 2 1 



the title belongs, strictly speaking, to the members of 

 the separate commissions, and it is their relation to the 

 keepers of the peace that must now be considered. Of 

 the total 671, 501 were serving on the separate commis- 

 sions for labourers issued between 1352 and 1359,' many 

 of them having been already appointed on previous com- 

 missions. Now during the period of the double series 

 of commissions 404 men were appointed as keepers of 

 the peace ; a comparison of their names with those of 

 the 501 justices of labourers for the same period shows 

 that 299 were identical — that is that about three-quarters 

 of the keepers of the peace were justices of labourers. 

 A further study of names shows that 32 of the remaining 

 list of " keepers " had previously been appointed to the 

 joint commissions, and that one was serving as justice of 

 labourers in the palatinate of Lancaster, so that only y2 

 of the 404 are unaccounted for.^ An examination of the 

 501 justices of labourers reveals that of the 202 names 

 not duplicated as keepers of the peace, 80 were assigned 

 to towns, liberties, or wapentakes that often had no com- 

 mission of the peace distinct from that of the county. 

 A comparison of the two series of commissions district 

 by district shows that frequently the same men were per- 



'The remaining names (not included in the 501) are distributed as 

 follows: on the joint and separate commissions previous to the statute 

 o^ I35i> 30J on the joint commissions from 1351 to 1352, 113; for the 

 palatinates, Chester, 2; Durham, 4, and Lancaster, 10; additional names 

 not found on the Patent Rolls, 11. The latter, distributed throughout 

 the three periods, are: Bealknap, Brewes, Burwell, Cranesle, Forster, 

 Houel, Lovel (R.), Nevill (R. de), Northtoft, Radeswell and Rougham. 

 For the complete list of justices, references to their appointments, etc., 

 see app., C, 3. Both Lovel and Radeswell had been appointed to com- 

 missions of the peace in their respective counties as early as 1345; CciL 

 Patent Rolls, vii, 30 and vi, 511. 



^ Many of them appear on the commissions of the first period. 



