I lo ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



In spite of the care exercised by the commons to provide 

 tor every contingency, tliere are two instances where 

 further general instructions prove necessary. As a result 

 of complaints to the court of exchequer of embezzlement 

 of the penalties per diuersos ministros Regis, it is provided 

 that the justices of labourers, in addition to the delivery of 

 their estreats to the collectors, shall send duplicates to the 

 exchequer and it is explicitly declared that the collectors 

 must account at the exchequer for levying the penalties in 

 aid of the communities in accordance with the estreats ; but 

 they are reminded that whatever has not been levied at the 

 time of the expiration of the subsidy shall go directly to the 

 king/ It is to be noted that this additional safeguard for 

 accounting is offered as an amendment to the provision of 

 the statute of labourers for the disposition of the penalties, 

 instead of to the provision of the grant of 1352; it is, there- 

 fore, clear that the clause in the statute, while apparently 

 intended only for the subsidy of 1348, was held to aoply to 

 the new subsidy also ; the significance of this fact lies «. hiefly 

 in the method of dealing with arrears, as will be seen later. 



exchequer against the justices of labourers for the delivery of their es- 

 treats (rf. pp. 44, 132); but on 9 Feb., 1352 the treasurer reported the 

 new grant to the barons and stopped the execution of the writs again.st 

 the justices. Cf. Mem. L. T. R., 26, Hill., Communia, rot. 5, 

 Anglia; "' De non distringendo iusticiarios pro liberacione extractarum 

 de seruitoribus:" " Memorandum quod Rex ad peticionem communi- 

 tatis regni in instanti parliamento concessit eidem communitati quod 

 omnes denarios etc." The estreats for Essex, already delivered, are 

 sent from the exchequer to the collectors in accordance with a writ of 

 the great seal dated 2 March addressed to the treasurer and barons, and 

 enrolled in Mem. K. R., 26, Pasch., Breu. Baron., rot. i; " Pro Leone 

 de Bradenham et lohanne de Depeden." Similarly, the estreats for 

 Dorset are sent to the collectors; Mem. K. R.. 26, Hill., Breu. Baron., 

 rot. 28, " Pro communitate comitatus Dorset." 



'App., 273275. An action was brought against the Derby justices 

 for the delivery of their duplicate estreats; app., 281-287. 



