202 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



claim his villein but almost always merely tries to prove 

 that the labourer in question is free, not villein. A curious 

 case originating before the justices of labourers and sum- 

 moned to Westminster is to the point. Five brothers bring 

 an action on the statute of labourers against a lord, on the 

 ground that, after each of them had entered into a contract 

 with an employer, the defendant had come and taken them 

 each back to his manor and by thus preventing them from 

 fulfilling their contracts had caused them damages to the 

 extent of 20s. each. The plea of the defendant that they 

 are all his villeins is held a good plea by the justices and 

 the plaintififs are all in mercy; there is apparently no ques- 

 tion raised as to his right as their lord to take them out of 

 the service of their new employers.^ As a logical result of 

 the recognition of the lord's right to re-take his villein even 

 though bound by contract, it is decided by the courts that 

 a servant can justify his departure within the term by 

 proving that he had been distrained ^ or actually seized as a 

 villein ^ by the agents of his lord. Since the ordinance had 

 stipulated that a lord might keep only as many villeins as he 

 needed it is natural that in some of the cases the lord should 

 add to his statement of the villeinage of the servant in 

 question the plea that he needed his services ; * yet when 



'App., 244-248, and p. 96. It is more accurate to say that the ques- 

 tion had not been raised before the justices of labourers; I do not know 

 the final result of the case. 



'Case 7, list in app., printed by Vinogradoff; cf. also Fitzherbert, op. 

 cit., Hale's note, 391. 



* Coram Rege, 47, Hill., Cavendissh, 9, Derby; William Gande, a 

 carter, was attached to answer Thomas de Grenehill for departure 

 within the term: " Willelmus Gande . . . dicit quod ipse die Lune pre- 

 dicto a seruicio predicti Thome contra voluntatem suam captus fuit per 

 Willelmum Shepey, balliuum episcopi Couentrensis et Lychfeldensis, vt 

 natiuus predicti episcopi, apud Sallowe et detentus ibidem per predictum 

 Willelmum Shepeye et alios ministros dicti episcopi. . . ." 



*See p. 201, note 8; also case 38, app., F, 6. 



