64 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



is still more difficult to find traces of the development of 

 any rigid system for their preservation. That they were 

 usually kept for a time at least is clear from the follow- 

 ing considerations : records of actions before the justices 

 of labourers are summoned to Westminster by writ of 

 certiora7-i in order that the case may come before the 

 king's bench, the council or the chancellor;' the ex- 

 chequer for some special reason often orders the justices 

 to deliver into its custody their records, rolls and pro- 

 cesses ; * in the case of certain difficulties as to the divis- 

 ion of the penalties the treasurer and the barons bid the 

 justices examine their records and discuss the point in 

 question fully among themselves ; ^ on one occasion the 

 king has heard that a certain one of three justices had 

 the piacita in his possession and therefore to him and to 

 him alone is directed the writ ordering him to examine 

 the records/ There is also some indication that the 

 capitalis iusticiarius was more directly responsible for 

 the custody of both estreats and piacita than were his 

 colleagues. 5 



An investigation of the eighteen existing rolls shovv^ 

 that in fourteen cases their survival can be explained 

 by special causes ; ^ either the roll in question was 

 wanted for a particular purpose by the exchequer, 



' See s. 7; also app., C, 2. 



' C/. writs in app., C, i; note 3 infra contains one instance out of 

 many of a reference to the existence of a roll which I have not been 

 able to discover. 



'Mem. L. T. R., 35, Mich., Breu. Ret., rot. 2"], Berks.: " nos igitur 

 inde per vos cerciorari volentes vobis mandamus si pluries quod visis 

 rotulis placitorum inde penes vos residentibus, discussoque plenius inter 

 vos . . . ." 



*App., 211. 



^Cf. p. 60, note 7, supra. "App., 144. 



