THE JUSTICES OF LABOURERS 



43 



duties of the clerk of the justices, and as to the oath to be 

 taken by him, — provisions that were probably added only 

 after half a century of administrative difificulties had shown 

 the urgent need of precisely such remedies. The evi- 

 dence just given, slight though it is, certainly establishes a 

 presumption in favor of the theory that the substance of 

 the oath by which de Roulegh was sworn was practically 

 the same as that of the justices of the upper courts, and 

 that it was afterwards incorporated into the more elabor- 

 ate form devised in the next reign for the justices of the 

 peace.' The inference also seems sound that the other 

 justices during the years 1 349-1 359, whether of the 

 peace or for labourers, were sworn by the same oath as 

 that which de Roulegh violated ; but in the absence 

 of information for this decade, it is impossible to say by 

 whom the oath was administered.^ 



^ In the Report on the Public Records, of 1800, 223, among the oaths 

 of office in the Chancery Crown office, not administered by the clerk of 

 the crown or by his deputies there is printed in Enghsh under the 

 absurd heading "Justices of the Office of Labourer's Weights and 

 Measures," an oath really made up of two oaths: i, of the justice of 

 labourers and of weights and measures, 2, of the justice of the peace 

 and of labourers. The latter half is practically identical with that of the 

 justice of the peace given on the preceding page of the Report and by 

 Lambard, op. cit., 5C-51, and printed by Mr. Beard, op. cit., 171, and 

 plainly goes back to Fitzherbert's form. In looking for the original of 

 this confused oath Miss Martin reports that the clerk of the crown in 

 Chancery says that they have nothing earlier than 1700 ; but she has 

 discovered at the Record Office among the Petty Bag documents (Rolls 

 of Oaths, no. 31, Various) what seems to be the desired original under 

 the title: " Sacramentum Justiciariorum de operacionibus et mensuris 

 et pacis," apparentlj' in a sixteenth century handwriting. From the 

 fact that the justices of labourers are still referred to specifically, it un- 

 doubtedly antedates the form given by Fitzherbert but is certainly later 

 than the form of 1380. 



'In 1380 it was the sheriff; but in 138Q there is a petition that it shall 

 be the chancellor and council. For the later practice see Beard, op. 

 cit., 143. 



