42 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



Roi en Office de la Juslicerie et dreiture a lour poner frount a 

 touz auxi bien as poures come as riches et que pnr hautesce 

 ne pur richesce ne pur amour ne pur haour ne pur estat de 

 nuly persone ne pur bienfait, doun ne promesse de nuly. . . . 



Further, the earliest recorded form of the oath admin- 

 istered to the justices of the peace that I have been able 

 to discover, printed in the rolls of parliament for the 

 year 1380/ some time after the consolidation of the two 

 commissions, reveals in its opening a marked likeness to 

 the oath taken by de Roulegh : 



Vous jurrez que bien et loialment servirez le Roi en loffice de 

 Gardein de la Paix, & de Justicerie des Artificers, Laborers, 

 Pois et Mesures, & doier & terminer les tortz et grevances 

 faitz au Ro: & a son people .... selonc voz sen et poair 

 ent ferrez avoir plein droit as touz, si bien as povres come as 

 riches, si que pur hayour, favour, amistee, ou estat de nulluy 

 persone, ne pur bienfait, doun, ou promesse." . . . 



This oath which was to be administered by the sheriff then 

 continues with specific instructions as to the preserva- 

 tion of the estreats of the penalties and the rolls of the 

 proceedings, and also as to the qualifications and the 



^Rot. Pari., iii, 85. Lambard had evidently not seen this form; in 

 referring to the clause of 13 R. II, st. i, c. 7, that justices of the peace 

 are to be " sworne to keepe, and put in execution all the Statutes touch- 

 ing their office," he writes that it is the first oath that he has found to 

 have been administered to the justices of the peace, although he is con- 

 vinced that they were not " unsv/orn before," and that as it was too 

 "general!, & hard to be observed" it was changed to the form given 

 by Fitzherbert, almost identical with that in use in Lambard's day. 

 Eirenarcha, 45-50. The words in Richard's statute are probably not 

 themselves the form of the oath but only a reference to an oath, prob- 

 ably to that of 1380. 



^ Certain phrases of the councillor's oath given by Mr. Baldwin also 

 appear, notably " conseil le Roi celerez." 



