DISPOSITION OF THE PENALTIES 



137 



to the above officials to enforce the statute/ and second, two 

 years later, an enactment that the statute should extend to 

 London,- followed by the issue of a commission.* The full 

 estreats in Letter-Book G show the efficacy of these at- 

 tempts.* From a study of the actions for estreats one 

 gathers the impression that the sheriff is a decidedly over- 

 worked official, and one is not surprised to find that he is 

 often delinquent; a justice brings suit against him for his 

 wages ; ° the coroners are ordered to distrain him for fail- 

 ure to return writs,'' and there are numerous instances when 

 his plea non vacarc potuit is not accepted and he is im- 

 prisoned and fined by the exchequer.^ 



^ Cal. Letter-Book G, Z7', dated 13 Feb., 29 Edw. III. 



'App., 18; this enactment seems superfluous in view of the rtnal 

 clause of the statute of 1351. 



■''Dated i Aug., 1357; cf. app., 42. and Cal. Letter-Book G, 115. 



* C7. ibid., loc. cit., for the enrollment of the writ of supersedeas of 

 4 Nov., 1359, and of the following writ, of 5 Nov., " Breue ad mitten- 

 dum omnia rotulos et recorda de operariis in Cancellariam," and also 

 of the estreats of the penalties from i Aug., 1357, to Mich., 1359; 

 these latter are particularly valuable because the occupations of the 

 ofifenders are given. 



*Mem., L. T. R., 32, Hill., Presentaciones, rot. 4, De attornato. 

 Staff': " lohannes de Sutton, chiualer, vnus iusticiariorum domini 

 Regis tam de pace quam de operariis in comitatu Staff' de annis xxix", 

 xxx° et xxxi° ponit loco suo Robertum de Sekynton vel Henricum de 

 Puys ad prosequendum pro vadiis suis super compotum vicecomitis eius- 

 dem comitatus. In pleno scaccario. " 



"CY". e. g., Mem. K. R., 31, Trin., Recorda, Salop', " De vicecomite 

 attachiato pro debitis Regis non leuatis et variacione in responsione 

 sua;" also Mem. L. T. R., 32, Trin., Breu. Ret., Salop'; John de 

 Burton, the subsherifT of Richard, earl of Arundell, sheriff, is here the 

 offender. 



'There seem to be serious difficulties connected with the office of 

 sheriff of Somerset and Dorset; John de Palton and John de Ralegh 

 have both been accused of delinquencies (pp. 116-117, notes2 and 7); also 

 John de Sancto Lando, the guilty sheriff in the process quoted p. 132, note 



