134 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



which the justices of labourers received their salaries is now 

 thoroughly worked out and is worthy of note as indicating 

 perhaps the most valuable source for showing the fre- 

 quency with which the justices were acting. The first step 

 in the process is occasionally a writ of the great seal to the 

 treasurer and barons bidding them order the sheriff to make 

 the payment,^ but is more usually a writ to the sheriff him- 

 self in the form of a letter close ordering him to pay the 

 justices at a specified rate per day or per year out of the 

 issues of their sessions for the days during which they have 

 actually sat." In rendering his itemized account at the ex- 

 chequer, the sheriff states that in accordance with the writs 

 of the great seal he has paid to each justice the amount due 

 him, showing in each case the justice's receipt; " then fol- 



nal and enrolled, see app., 256-258. In the course of the next reign the 

 more direct method of dealing with the estreats is adopted, like that in 

 use during the subsidy in relation to the collectors; one copy is given 

 by the justices to the sheriffs and the duplicate is sent into the ex- 

 chequer; see oath of ofifice taken by the justices of the peace, printed in 

 Rot. Pari., iii, 85, quoted p. 42. 



'See app., 368-371. for an example of the successive step.s in the 

 whole process. 



^ For the references to the enrollments, cf. p. 46, note 3. The series 

 does not begin until the 30th year, since it has been shown that during 

 the subsidy the collectors had paid these salaries; cf. p. 112. In cases 

 where the allowances to the tax had not been duly made the sherifif 

 becomes responsible for the back salaries of the justices; cf. e.i^., Mem. 

 L. T. R., 31, Mich., Breu. Irret., Shropshire, where the sherif? is 

 ordered to pay wages to justices of labourers for the 26th year. 



^Memoranda Rolls, K. R. and L. T. R., passim; unfortunately in 

 the series for Somerset selected for the app., 368-371, I was unable to find 

 the desired entry under " Status et visus;" therefore I add here a sim- 

 ilar entry for another county. Mem. K. R., 31, Mich., Status et visus, 

 Lincoln'; "Facto visu compoti Thome de Fulnetby, vicecomitis, de 

 vltimo dimidio anno xxx . . . . Et viii li. vi s. viii d. quos soluit 

 lohanni Busshe, vni iusticiariorum ad transgressiones operariorum. 

 seruientum et artificum in partibus de Kesteuen in comitatu predicto 

 puniendas assignatorum, pro vadiis suis pro tempore quo fuit intendens 

 sessioni iusticiarie predicte, per breue Regis et literas acquietancie ipsius 

 lohannis de recepcione. For example of an original receipt, f/. app.. 277. 



