144 



APPENDIX 



claimed in the county courts. One roll of exigends appears 

 unexpectedly among Ancient Indictments/ and three others 

 among Coroners' Rolls, although the description given in List 

 of Plea Rolls does not adequately indicate the nature of these 

 last three.- The Gaol Delivery Rolls undouhtedly contain more 

 information as to convictions before justices of laborers, but 

 unfortunately have not been included in my search.^ It has 

 already been shown that in connection with the supervision of 

 the justices in session, exercised by the central government, 

 proceedings before them were sometimes removed into a higher 

 court and were thus preserved ; '* a few of these are given in 

 app., C, 2. There has also proved to be evidence in ex- 

 chequer documents^ that, for a while at least, sessional records 

 similar to those actually discovered were in existence, but for 

 the decade 1 349-1 359 these eighteen rolls are the only ones 

 that I have found that can legitimately be described as records, 

 more or less complete, of sessions of justices of labourers, of 

 the separate or of the joint commissions. It is unnecessary to 

 repeat here the proof of the theory that there is a special ex- 

 planation of the survival of each of these rolls and of the 

 belief that at this date there was no regular system for the 

 preservation of sessional records.** In the following pages ex- 

 tracts from each of the eighteen rolls are given, with the ex- 

 ception of the one in print; and also when possible the par- 

 ticular reason for its survival." The title of each roll as it 

 stands in the official catalogue is given, the asterisk indicating 

 the rolls that are at present inadequately described ; the Roman 

 numerals refer merely to the order in my list. 



'Cf. app., C, I, no. XVIII. 



^ Ibid. One naturally infers that only the rolls described as contain- 

 ing exigends belong to this class. Gross in Select Cases from Cor- 

 Ofters' Rolls, 118, prints an example of an exigend of an offender against 

 the statute for the year 1363. 



» Cf. List of Plea Rolls. 



*Pt. I, ch. ii, s. I, and s. 7. 



•"^C/. pt. I, ch. ii, s. I. "-Ibid. Ubid. 



