106 



Extracts from the Records of the 



And if a man will cudgel his neighbour during the hours of the 

 sessions and in the eye of the court, he cannot complain that the 

 assembly should vindicate its dignity by an exemplary sentence. 

 Jeffrey's ears were left unmolested, and he seems to have been 

 spared the additional ignominy of an explanatory placard. 



Nor were verbal affronts tamely accepted by the court. A writ 

 of good behaviour issued at Michaelmas, 1598, against John Ball, 

 of Burbage, " for sayeng the justices used noe indifferent dealing 

 towards one Thompson and Hunt,'"' and at the Michaelmas Sessions, 

 held at Marlborough, on the 30th September, 1600 : — 



" Mathewe Meryet came into the Conrte and there openly did depose that he 

 never heard Mr. Richard Burleigh say that bandes of the peace sholde not serve 

 Mr. Ambrose Button's turne but that he would be revenged on him nor anie 

 wordes to the like purpose or effect as Thomas Myles upon his oath before the 

 L Cheife Justice in this Courte did depose But further sayeth that Mr. Ambrose 

 Button did aske this deponent whether Mr. Burleigh had spoken anie such wordes 

 wch he this deponent utterlie denyed." 



The pillory would have been a fitting punishment enough for 

 extortion ; but so far as the minutes under consideration relate to 

 that offence it escaped any such severe retribution. Conclusive proof 

 of it was perhaps not easily obtained. In one case the only note is 

 the usual bail to appear on a future day, in another the accused 

 protested his innocence, yet threw himself on the mercy of the 

 court and paid a fine of 20s. ; in a third, the indictment was quashed 

 for some informality which does not appear. 



Of witchcraft one curt entry alone appears, viz., for bewitching 

 a cow, (pro incantatione vaccce) the ultimate fate of the accused is 

 not disclosed. 



Another judgment of the court seems to relate to some encroach- 

 ment on the highway. 



Easter, 20th Elizabeth 



" It is ordered at this Court that Willm Peter gent shall pull up the hedg wch 

 he hath made as it is specified in an indightment remayning of Record betwixt 

 this and the first day of the next terme." 



In the following case nothing further is to be obtained beyond 

 the statement of the charge. 



