THE JUSTICES OF LABOURERS 



41 



it took. My search for a copy of the oath has been un- 

 successful, but a chance reference in one of the sessional 

 records fortunately affords a valuable clue, John de 

 Roulegh, or de Rowele, who in 1350 was enforcing the 

 ordinance in Surrey/ whether on a separate commission 

 for labourers or one that included the peace also, it is 

 impossible to say, was in March, 135 1 appointed on the 

 joint commission for the same county. In the following 

 September, however, he was removed by the king and 

 council, and in January was indicted by his former col- 

 leagues of the joint commission for ofifences committed 

 during his first term of office : 



Item presentant quod vbi lohannes de Rowele nuper extitit 

 iusticiarius domini Reg-is in comitatu Surr' et iuratus ad 

 faciendum ius tam domino Reg-i quam populo ipsius Regis et 

 tarn pauperibus quam diuitibus et quod ipse hoc non dimitteret 

 pro odio, fauore, munde, nee premissa neque iniuriam alicui 

 faceret ; ibi dictus lohannes de Rowele, nullo habito respectu 

 ad suum iuramentum, ex falsitate et maliciosa imaginacione 

 sua et pro odio quod habuit versus Gilbertum.' . . . 



The phrases here used are strikingly similar to the cor- 

 responding phrases in the regular oath of the king's 

 justices as it appears in the " Red Book of the Ex- 

 chequer : " ^ 



Le serment des Justices est que bien et leaument serviront le 



' App., 248-249, and p. 11. 



"Assize Rolls, Surrey, 907, m. i d; further extracts are given in app., 

 211-213; see also pt. I, ch. ii, s. 7. 



^See Rolls ed., table of contents, Ixx. It is printed in the Report on 

 the Public Records, of 1800, 236: " Sacramentum Justiciariorum." In 

 an article on the "King's Council" in E. H. R. for Jan., 1906, Mr. 

 Baldwin proves that this oath, used early in the reign of Edvv. Ill, had 

 adopted important phrases of the councillor's oath of 1307, which in 

 turn goes back to an earlier councillor's oath of 1257. 



