HIGH COURT OF MADRAS. 



41 



seven years both parties have been resident in the place six 

 months at one and the same time, and no demand has been 

 made of the debt in the Mayor's Court and an action com- 

 menced for the same." 25 



A short time previously it appears to have been ordered 

 that all Wills should be proved in the Mayor's Court, in conse- 

 quence, it is said, of the Roman Catholic inhabitants having 

 been accustomed to prove their Wills before the Capuchin 

 Friars, and complaints having reached the Governor and 

 Council that advantage was taken of this circumstance to 

 convey a large portion of the effects of deceased Roman Catho- 

 lics to the Patriarch of Antioch at Pondicherry. 26 



The following extracts illustrate the method of proceeding 

 in criminal cases : — 



" Monday, 3rd August 1696. — The Choultry Justices having 

 produced examinations taken by them concerning the murder of 

 a child in the Black Town, and the robbing of a go down within 

 the walls ; it is ordered that the Judge Advocate do cause a ses- 

 sion to be held on Tuesday the 1 1th instant for the trial of the 

 criminals and that the examinations be delivered to the Attorney 

 General 27 in order to their prosecution. 



" Thursday, 13th August. — The Judge reports from the Special 

 Court of Admiralty held on the 11th and 12th instant for the 

 trial of several criminals, that on the 11th the Grand Jury found 

 both the bills, viz., Chinandree and Nulla Tombee accused of 

 breaking into a G-odown and stealing a considerable quantity of 

 Quicksilver ; and Hosana and Pochera for the murdering of a 

 child in Black Town : — The Court adjourned their trial till yester- 



25 Wheeler's Madras, vol. i, p. 43. 



26 Ibid., p. 42. 



27 The Court of Directors in their letter to Madras of the 22nd January 

 1692 directed that for the better regulation of the Company's interest an 

 Attorney-General was to be appointed for Fort St. George (Bruce' s Annals, 

 vol. iii, p. 112) ; but the office must have been in existence before that time, 

 as the following passage occurs in a despatch dated the 6th June 1687, " for 

 which our Attorney-General upon information made to him shall sue and 

 implead the Goods so landed." 



6 



