110 



Extracts from the Records of the 



not made a sufficient return to and execution of our Lady the Queen's Writ as 

 appears by the record." 



XXII. — Minor Transactions. — Notes of Assizes. 



Bat if, on the one hand, the Court of Quarter Sessions exercised 

 a practically unlimited criminal jurisdiction and also performed a 

 variety of other important functions not immediately connected with 

 crime, yet on the other, the court discharged numerous minor duties 

 which at the present day are undertaken either at the Court of 

 Summary Jurisdiction, or by a justice sitting 1 alone. In the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth as in the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria, 

 every petty theft had to be submitted to a jury. It was also in full 

 court that accused persons were committed to the next sessions or 

 assizes as the case might be, and prosecutors and witnesses were 

 bound over to appear and give evidence. The county boundary does 

 not seem to have been an inviolable barrier, for on more than one 

 occasion the court binds over a witness to the assizes at Winchester. 



The notices of the Assizes appearing in the Elizabethan minutes 

 do not present any features of interest, with the single exception 

 of the minute, entered at p. 96, supra. In the rest, the entries 

 concerning them are of no interest whatever : the following is a 

 list of the Assizes noticed in the minutes : — 



Date. Before whom held. 



22nd March, 1575, No names. 



30th August, 1576, No names. 



3rd March, 1576, No names. 



26th February, 1577, Chief Baron Jeffreys, and Serjeant Anderson. 

 12th March, 1578, Chief Baron Man wood, and Serjeant Anderson. 

 24th August, 1579, Chief Baron Manwood, and Serjeant Anderson. 

 30th June, 1 580, Chief Baron Manwood, and Serjeant Anderson. 

 20th August, 1584, Chief Baron Manwood, Mr. Justice Perryam. 

 19th August, 1585, No names. 



Of these all were held at Salisbury, save that of the 24th August, 

 1579, which was held at Amesbury. 



