124 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



justices," and are fined heavily/ Many commissions, re- 

 corded usually on the Memoranda Rolls, but occasionally 

 on the Patent Rolls,- were appointed to investigate the 

 misdeeds of the collectors. Frequently as a result of the 

 findings of such commissions and of subsequent imprison- 

 ment of the delinquent collectors, the latter eventually 

 pay large fines and also account to the exchequer for 

 the penalties; but much more often, as has been pointed 

 out in the preceding section, the actions against them drag 

 on year after year, involving much effort and time on the 

 part of the exchequer and last so long that the collectors 

 themselves have died and their innocent heirs and executors 

 find themselves involved in bothersome suits. In such cases, 

 it is likely that the final profit to the exchequer is small, and 

 it seems probable that one especially flagrant example of 



^ Coram Rege, 27, Trin., Shareshull, 49, Surrey, Henry de Bek- 

 well 2's. the collectors; " de placito quare cum eisdem collectoribus 

 pluries mandauerat Rex quod prefato Henrico . . . quinque solidos per 

 diem pro vadiis . . . soluerent ve! causam Regi significarent quare 

 mandate Regis alias eis inde directo minime paruerunt, iidem . . . 

 spretis mandatis Regis predictis vt accepit Rex, predicto Henrico vadia 

 sua predicta soluere . . . non curarunt." /(5>?</., 27, Mich., Shareshull, 

 Adhuc de finibus; two of the collectors are fined "pro retencione de- 

 nariorum de laboratoribus receptorum." Cf. Enrolled Subs., 14, Surrey, 

 first collection. In a case in Lid. Ass., 27 Mich., pi. 15, not yet iden- 

 tified on the Coram Rege Rolls, certain collectors are accused of having 

 levied large sums of penalties for which they had not accounted. Cf. 

 also Ancient Indictments, no. 19, Dorset, m. i [32nd year]: " luratores 

 dicunt per sacramentum suum quod Yvo de Childecome, collector x"'" 

 et xv""' annis xxviii"'" et xxix""" cepit ad vsum suum proprium de amer- 

 ciamentis laborariorum et vitellariorum quinquaginta marcas in decep- 

 cione Regis et ad graue dampnum communis populi . . . ." 



"^ E. g., Pat., 30, pt. 2, m. 20 d, 6 June, " De inquirendo de summis 

 leuatis per collectores x^ et xv* de excessibus operariorum etc.;" in the 

 county of Wilts. Ibid., m. 3d, 3 Oct., " De inquirendo de finibus de 

 operariis receptis;" in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, apparently. 

 In both cases the phrase is " ac iam ex graui querela hominum (of the 

 counties named) intelleximus." 



