CHAPTER II 



PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES OF LABOURERS 



In comparison with the completeness of the chancery 

 enrollments having to do with the appointments of the 

 justices, the number of sessional records in existence for 

 the decade is disappointingly meagre/ eighteen rolls, 

 representing thirteen counties. Other sources, however, 

 abound in references to similar rolls which cannot now 

 be found, ^ while exchequer documents as to the penal- 

 ties,3 especially subsidy accounts '^ and entries of pay- 

 ments of justices' Vvages,^ afford convincing proof that 

 the justices were sitting with fair regularity throughout 

 the country. The eighteen rolls, therefore, by no means 

 give exhaustive information as to the activity of the 

 justices, and even if thoroughly analyzed will not furnish 

 complete statistics as to rates of wages or of prices, or as 

 to the number of offenders in the various economic and 

 social classes affected by the statutes. They may, 

 nevertheless, be regarded as typical for the administra- 

 tive methods of the justices, their procedure in session, 

 their relative emphasis on different portions of the legis- 

 lation, and the character of their penalties, and contain 

 important if not conclusive evidence as to the general 

 trend of rates and the usual status of the culprits. 



' By no means meagre however in comparison with the usual state- 

 ment that none can be found for an earlier date than the sixteenth 

 century. 



'See p. 64, and app., 143-144. ^Pt. i, ch. ui, passim. 



^ Ibid., s. I, B. ''Ibid., s. 2, A. and pt. i, ch. i, s. 6. 



