6o ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



quests in every hundred, and make their reports to 

 the justices who are conducting their sessions at the 

 chief town.' I have been unable to discover where, 

 within the limits of the town, the sessions were usually 

 held; in Essex, a instice sur laborers is indicting and 

 convicting labourers en Ic Chaustcl Dauiigre ; it will be 

 shown later, however, that there is some doubt as to 

 the nature of his commission, and in any case his pro- 

 ceedings were irregular/ 



From the rolls themselves one can not always infer 

 how many or which justices were acting, as the heading 

 is frequently coram . . . (then follows one name) el sock's 

 sin's ; but it has been emphasized that the writs for wages 

 indicate that the number of "working" justices ranges 

 from two to five;^ the form of the commission implies 

 that a minimum of two must be present,^ and it appears 

 that one of the charges against a justice under indictment 

 is that he sat alone in judgment. ^ It seems to have been 

 the custom to speak of one justice of each commission, 

 usually the first name on the list, as capifalis uisticiarius^ 

 or principaliter nominatus ; '' but just what additional re- 



' App., 228-229. - App.. 266. and pt. i, ch. iii. s. i, A. 



■ Cf. pp, 17-18, and notes i and 2. 



* " Et ideo vobis mandamus quod . . . vos tres et duo veslrum ..." 

 app., 26. 



■'App., 212. It is strange that in two instances in the second series 

 of writs for the 26th year, Kesteven and Holderness, wages are to be 

 paid to one man only. See supra, note 3. Chester is a distinct ex- 

 ception; some of the proceedings take place before one justice only, and 

 the commission issued just after my decade is directed to one man only; 

 p. 16, note 2. 



''Mem. L. T. R., 29, Trin., Breu. Ret., rot. 2 d; Henry de Percy is 

 thus described. Ibid., 32, Mich., Recorda, rot. 21, Derby; Braylesford 

 appears in court under this title. 



^See Exchequer, K. R., Accounts, 110/15, Norfolk; Berneye (whose 



