1681.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 127 



the affairs of the Church, and exercised a general supervision 

 over the various concerns of the hody politic — such as the 

 repairs of highways, the maintenance of fences, the sale of the 

 time of servants, and even to the recording of the ear marks of 

 cattle. Besides tiie Court, the Sheriff and Surveyor, the govern- 

 ment possessed no agent charged with the performance of civil 

 duties within the County of Upland.' 



A legal gentleman who has carefully examined the Record of 

 the Upland Court, remarks " that the forms of proceeding were 

 of a character no less primitive and incongruous than the juris- 

 diction of the Court, partaking rather of the nature of suits 

 before an ordinary Justice of the Peace than those of a Court of 

 Record. The 'Instructions' directed 'all writts, warrants, and 

 proceedings at Lawe to be in his majesty's name.' A declara- 

 tion, or informal statement of the cause of action seems to have 

 been required, and a rule was adopted directing it to be entered 

 at least one day before the Court met. Although the technical 

 names of actions were used in many cases, such as action on the 

 case, slander, kc, no actual division of actions was known, these 

 names having probably been taken from 'y'' Lawe Booke' re- 

 ferred to occasionally. There does not, in fact, seem to have 

 been any clearly drawn distinction between civil and criminal 

 cases ; a proceeding exclusively civil in its character frequently 

 resulting in a judgment, partially at least, appropriate to a 

 criminal case. In short, the whole method of practice was rather 

 a dispensation of justice, as the ideas of it existed in the heads, 

 and was tempered by the hearts of the Judges, than the admin- 

 istration of any positive law, written or unwritten." 



Offences, criminal in their nature, were usually punished by 

 the imposition of a fine ; the want of a jail precluded imprison- 

 ment. Corporal punishment by whipping, was, in a few in- 

 stances, resorted to by the Court at New Castle, but it forms no 

 part of any sentence of the Court of Upland contained in the 

 Record. But this Record has been mutilated by cutting out two 

 leaves ; and as the minutes of the Court next following that of 

 which the Record is thus defective, contains a bill of costs against 

 parties of bad repute, in which there is a charge of 101 gilders 

 "/or 'payment of the Indians that ivhipt, etc.," it may be inferred 

 that corporal punishment was resorted to in one single instance, 

 and that Indians were employed in its infliction. In this view 

 of the matter, it is not difficult to account for the mutilation of 

 the Record. 



The fines imposed were sometimes remitted by the Court. 

 This was especially the case when one of the Justices had an 



1 The Commander sometimes sat with the Justices; Supervisors and Constables 

 were appointed by the Court. 



