212 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



3 Vagrancy pleaded by both the second masters; lack 

 of contract and also lack of food and clothing by the 

 two ancille; damages for plaintiff of i6d. from one 

 ancilla and 2s. from the other; and 36s. 8d. from 

 each of the masters.^ 

 In the action of trespass vi ct ariiiis for taking servant, 

 the plea of previous contract urged by the defendant is not 

 upheld, because the plaintiff is able to prove that the defend- 

 ant's ill-treatment had justified the servant's departure; the 

 verdict is damages of 4 marks for the plaintiff and also a 

 fine of 5s. for the defendant." Out of these 14 verdicts, 

 therefore, there is not one explicitly for the servant although 

 in the last case he benefits by the verdict for the plaintiff'. 



In the small number of actions on the compulsory ser- 

 vice clause, only two altogether, and one involving the 

 clause,^ no example occurs either of a verdict or of a judg- 

 ment; but to these actions found on the Plea Rolls must be 

 added the reports of two cases, for which I have not suc- 

 ceeded in identifying the records. Tn one of these the judg- 

 ment is for the defendants on a technicality; there should 

 have been two writs instead of one ; * and in the second 



' De Banco, 50, Hill., 223 d, Norfolk; " Et eedem Cristiana et Sibilla 

 separatim dicunt quod quedam Alicia mater ipsarnm Cristiane et Sibille 

 fuit comorans per longum tempus cum predicto Thoma (plaintiff), quasi 

 amica et seruiens eiusdem Thome, ipsis adtunc tenuris etatis et cum 

 eadem matre sua in dome ipsius Thome comorantibus, et postea mater 

 earundem obiit; post cuius mortem ipse comorabantur cum eodem 

 Thoma quasi filie sue et ipsi deseruiebant absque aliqua conuencione, et 

 postea cum etas earundem accrescebat et idem Thomas eis pro victu et 

 vestitu suis necessariis pro earum statu et labore competencia non in- 

 veniebat, eedem Cristiana et Sibilla ab eodem Thoma recesserunt.'* 



^Case 17, app., F, 5. 



^See pp. 175-176, for references to these, and also to the remaining 

 four cases making up the total of 312. 



* Case 14, list in app.; Hale's note to Fitzherbert, op. cit., 389, quotes 



