HIGH COURT OF MADRAS. 



23 



England as should be thought most convenient, there to 

 receive such punishment as the justice of his offence should 

 deserve. 



Nothing however appears to have been done with a view 

 of carrying these provisions into effect in Madras till March 

 1678, up to which time the arrangements for the administra- 

 tion of justice there appear from the Rules and Regulations 

 made by the Grovernor (Mr. Streynsham Master) and Council 

 on the 31st January 1678 4 to have been as follows : — 



It was the duty of the Customer, or fourth in Council, 

 Mint Master, and Pay Master, or any two of them, to sit 

 every Tuesday and Friday in the Choultry to do the common 

 justice of the Town ; and to take care that the scrivener of 

 the Choultry duly registered all sentences in Portuguese, and 

 that there should be an exact register kept of all alienations 

 or sales of slaves, houses, gardens, boats, ships, &c. ; the 

 Company's due for the same to be received by the Customer, 

 and the Bills or Certificates for such sales to be signed by 

 the persons in the offices aforesaid or any two of them. 



The Purser General or Pay Master had also to take charge 

 of the concerns of deceased men, and to keep a book for 

 registering Wills and Testaments and Inventories of deceased 

 persons, the moneys so received to be paid into the Company's 

 cash ; and in the same book to keep a Register of births, 

 christenings, marriages and burials of all English men and 

 women within the Town. 



The Justices of the Choultry appear also to have acted as 

 Coroners, for we find that during the governorship of Mr. 

 Master's predecessor, Sir William Langhorne, notice having 

 been brought to him by Lieutenant James Bett of the death of 

 a soldier of the garrison under a punishment inflicted on him 

 by a Serjeant and Corporal, the Grovernor ordered Lieutenant 



4 Wheeler's Madras in the Olden Time, vol. iii, p. 43L 



