-2 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



would naturally include men learned in law,' there seems 

 d priori no such urgent need in the case of the justices 

 of labourers ; but even among the latter, there appear 

 the names of twenty-seven men who at some time during 

 their careers, served as judges in the upper courts,* and 

 merely a cursory study of the list shows that many of 

 these justices were acting as justices of assize and of 

 oyer and terminer. ^ 



It has been shown that in boroughs there is some 

 tendency to employ existing ofificials:'* the mayors of 

 York and of Nottingham both served on commissions 

 that included other names as well ; in Oxford on four 

 occasions, the mayor and chancellor are alone appointed ; 

 while in London the mayor and sheriffs are assigned, in 

 the first instance alone, in the second with three others.^ 

 The case of London is distinctly abnormal, for it had 

 been stated in the parliament in the autumn of 1355 that 

 sheriffs and coroners were not to be appointed justices.'' 



^The statute of 34 Edw. Ill, c. i, provided that the commission oJ 

 the peace (now a joint commission) should inchide " one lord, and with 

 him three or four of the most worthy in the County, with some learned 

 in the law." 



"Including justices of the court of king's bench and of common pleas, 

 several barons of the exchequer and several chancellors; cf. Foss' Judges 

 of England. 



' See indices of the calendars of Patent and Close Rolls. 



* As a matter of fact the ordinance had empowered the mayors and 

 bailiffs of cities and boroughs to enforce some of its provisions; app., 

 lO-I I . 



*App., 33 and note i, 34, 40, 42. For London see in addition, pt. i. 

 ch. iii, s. 2, A. 



*"Ne que nul Viscount, Coroner, ne nul de lour Ministres desore 

 soient assignez Justices en nulle commission; " Rot. Pari., ii, 265b. 

 Later it was necessary to repeat the prohibiten; ibid., 335b. Beard, 

 op. cit., 42, v/rites that the movement against sheriffs may have been 

 an attempt " to secure greater independence from purely royal ofti- 



