DISPOSITION OF THE PENALTIES 135 



lows another writ of the great seal to the treasurer and 

 barons bidding them examine the sheriff's writs and receipts 

 and, if they prove satisfactory, make him due allowance in 

 his account; ^ this allowance is then finally noted on the 

 Pipe Roll, the last entry in the whole process. These en- 

 tries, therefore, give statistical evidence of the number of 

 days of sessions in each county, as well as of the amounts 

 of the penalties.^ 



The system of levying estreats does not, by any means, 

 work with clock-like regularity; delays occur at all points, 

 necessitating monotonous repetition of the issue by the 

 exchequer of writs of distraint against the justices for 

 the delivery of their estreats ; ^ the actions against the 

 justices often drag on interminably, in one instance for 

 over eighteen years.* It is clearly a fact of decisive prac- 



'The Memoranda Rolls, K. R., seem literally full of such writs. 



^An excellent study could be made on the basis of these Pipe Roll 

 entries. 



'' Memoranda Rolls, passim. The cases are very similar to those 

 occurring during the subsidy; cf. e. g., app., 299. 



'Mem. L. T. R., 30, Trin., Recorda, rot. i. Staff'; " De comite 

 Staff' et aliis attachiatis pro extractis laborariorum liberandis." One 

 after another of the nine justices involved appear before the exchequer 

 with various excuses which are readily accepted; e. g.: " Et predicti 

 comes et lohannes de Delues pro se ipsis dicunt vt prius quod huius- 

 modi extractas non habent penes se liberandas. Dicunt enim quod 

 nulla commissio de iusticiaria predicta deuenit ad manus ipsorum com- 

 itis et lohannis vel eorum alterius nee ipsi vel eorum alter inde aliquo 

 se intromiserunt. 



Et predictus Thomas de Swynnerton venit similiter ad dictum cras- 

 tinum et dicit pro se quod quandoque fecit sessionem suam cum dictis 

 iusticiariis circa punicionem operariorum predictorum, set dicit quod 

 nulle extracte de aliquibus finibus, exitibus vel amerciamentis inde 

 emergentibus deuenerunt ad manus ipsius Thome." Finally, seven of 

 the nine are " sine die," and in the meantime one justice dies, but pro- 

 cess is continued against the executors of the latter and against the one 

 remaining justice and is apparently not concluded as late as Michaelmas 

 term of the 49th year. 



