I^g ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



in the courts of king's bench and of common pleas; it re- 

 mained for the fifteenth century gradually to evolve the 

 action of assumpsit as a common-law remedy in such cases/ 

 There is, however, abundant evidence to show that con- 

 tracts of this type came under the jurisdiction of the old 

 local courts, of the manor, of the hundred,^ and of the 

 borough. A few instances must be quoted that are di- 

 rectly concerned with the covenant between employer and 

 employee. In 1275, in the abbot of Ramsey's court in the 

 Fair of St. Ives, a servant who admits breach of contract 

 with his master, is ordered by the court to complete his term 

 of service; ^ in 1301, in the court of the manor of the lord 

 of Ruthin, actions are brought, under the head of breach 

 of contract, against a servant for departure within the term 

 agreed upon, and against a master for enticing the servant 



' Pollock and Maitland, op. cit., ii, 196, 219-222. I am not attempting 

 to present an account of the complex subject of contract in English law, 

 nor do I touch on tlie jurisdiction of the church and of the court of chan- 

 cery, but will merely refer to some available sources: the chapter on 

 ■'Contract" in v. ii of the work quoted supra; Principles of Contracf 

 by Pollock; also "'Contracts in Early Eng. Law" in Harvard Law 

 Review, vi, by the same author; "Assumpsit" and "Parol Contracts" 

 by Ames, ibid., ii and viii; " Early Eng. Equity" by Holmes in Law 

 Quarterly Revieiv, i; " Hist, of Contract" by Salmond., ibid., iii. 



*I must express my sincere thanks to Mr. G. J. Turner for having 

 called my attention to the importance of the enforcement of unwritten 

 contracts in the courts of the manor and of the hundred. The most em- 

 phatic statement in print is by Maitland in his introduction to the Little- 

 port court roll: " It is hard to believe that these Littleport villans, who 

 dared not send their children to school without their lord's leave, were 

 very ready with the pen, or that when they made agreements about 

 their petty affairs, they procured parchment and ink and wax and 

 a clerk. . . . The old 'folk law' may have required forms enough; but 

 there seems no absurdity in the supposition that at the beginning of the 

 fourteenth century, the local courts were already enforcing formless 

 agreements." Court Baron, 115-116. 



^Select Pleas in Manorial Courts, 156-157. " Conuencio " or " pac- 

 tum " is the term. 



