Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 



223 



his lamentable case, out of his gracious favour willed the poore roan to repayre 

 to the nexte Quarter Sessions, there to be releved by the benche and Body of the 

 Shire as they shold thinke fytt, and myselfe beinge then present ; it plessed his 

 Maiesty to call me to him and gave me a very strayt charge to make knowne 

 his plessure to the hole benche for his relyffe, w ch I raente faythefully to have 

 done in p'son, with my beste service to have fullfilled his maiestj's comandment 

 and for the releyffe of the poore man, but beinge called by my Lord Lef tenante 

 of Dorsett aboute some service for his maiesty of gretter importe, to be effected 

 att this Sessions att Burporte [Bridport] I thought fytt to make knowne, his 

 maiestys plessure to you all under my hand and so leving it to your lawful and 

 chary table consideracion I comytte you to God Frome Gillingham the 27th of 

 September, 1606. 

 " Youer lovynge f rynd 



" Car : Ealegh." 



More tender than the admonition from the Chief Justice of the 

 Common Pleas is the following hint from the Chief Justice of the 

 King's Bench and the Chief Baron of the Exchequer : — 



" After o r verie hartie comendacons Whereas we ar informed that there was 

 some complaynte by waye of petition made to the Justices of the Peace at the 

 laste Quarter Sessions by some Weavers of that Countie touchinge certaine 

 grevances conceived to be Offered by the Clothiers in putting some of them from 

 woorke whereby they are lefte without meanes to relieve them and tfieire 

 families And that the Justices then p'sente tooke some order for examinacon of 

 the truiethe of the saide complaynte w ch saide grevances beinge founde trewe in 

 o r opinions are verie fitt to be reformed we have therefore thought good to putt 

 you in mynde thereof and what o' opinions ar therein wishinge you in yo r sev'all 

 divisions to take speciall care for some speedie reformacon And if by yo r good 

 indevo r you cannot effecte what you shall thinke fitt Then to certifie us at the 

 nexte Assizes yo T opinions thereof and by whose defalte you cannot effecte the 

 same And even soe we bidd you hartelie farewell. 



" S'ieants Inne this laste of June 1607- 



" Yo r very lovinge frendes 



" Tho Flemyng * 

 " Lawr Tanfelde.* 



This * bitter cry " arose from Bradford, in connection with the 



cloth trade. 1 In a paper filed on the roll of the Trinity Sessions, 



• Sir Thomas Fleming had on the last day of Trinity term heen sworn Chief Justice of the 

 King's Bench, and had in his office of Chief Baron of the Exchequer (thus vacated) been sue- 

 eeeded by Sir Lawrence Tanfield. 



1 A complaint lodged by the searchers of cloth at the Easter Sessions, 1603, 

 makes it clear that a clothier occasionally turned upon these detective officers, 

 They allege of William Crispe, of Marshfield, clothier (who, at the preceding 

 sessions had been convicted ' 4 for the overlengths of xviij brode listed whites by 

 him made "), that he : — 



"Hath unjustly and of meere malice vexed and troubled the said s'chers for endictinge and 

 p'6entinge him for his faulty clothes, and yett thretneth to vexe and undoe them. And by 



