gS ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



by means of presents to the chancellor and in spite of 

 the hostile attitude of others of the council obtains per- 

 mission to appear by attorney; the question of the 

 ownership of the villeins was finally tried before the jus- 

 tices of assize and was settled in favor of the abbot. 



The two other villein cases are found among the County 

 Placita. In the first, a writ of certiorari had bidden the 

 justices of labourers in Bedfordshire send into chancery a 

 copy of certain proceedings held before them ; ' the docu- 

 ment is endorsed by David de Woll[ore],^ who was at this 

 date keeper of the chancery rolls, at the instance of John 

 de Herlyng,^ (usher of the kings' chamber), but I have 

 no clue as to the outcome. In the second, there had been 

 a similar writ to the Surrey justices of labourers ; the 

 endorsement of the transcript of tlie proceedings is " to 

 the chancellor of our lord the king"* and possibly indi- 

 cates that the final decision was left to the chancellor. 

 It is to be noted that in all these cases judgment had 

 been given by the justices of labourers before the issue 

 of the writs of certiorari. 



The fourth case has been mentioned several times ; it 

 is that of the two Surrey justices, de Roulegh and atte 

 Wode by name. After they had been removed from their 

 commission, as a result of complaints to the council, ^ 

 their former colleagues in their sessions proceed to bring 

 indictm.ents against them for their misdemeanors as 

 justices ; but before a judgment or a verdict is reached, 

 the court of king's bench issues to the acting justices a 

 writ of certiorari, summoning before it all the records in 

 the case, and after lengthy proceedings, finally acquits 

 atte Wode, but convicts de Roulegh of the offence for 



'App., 244-248. * C/. Cal. Close Rolls, ix, index. 



^Ibid., lac. cit. *App., 248-250. ^ See pp. 30-32. 



