Willis: Anglo-American Law 
81 
erally justices of the Curia Regis were chosen. The eyre of 
each of the judges generally lasted seven years. William I 
was the first to send judges on circuit. At first the crim- 
inal jurisdiction of the local courts was left untouched, except 
that when a justice in eyre was within a county he, instead 
of the sheriff, presided as judge. By the assize of Clarendon 
Henry II provided for inquests by twelve lawful men of each 
hundred and four of each township into robberies, murders, 
thefts, etc., and the presentation of criminals to the justices 
in eyre. Magna Charta (1245) forbade sheriffs, constables, 
coroners, and all bailiffs of the king from holding pleas of 
the crown. In this way criminal jurisdiction was reserved 
almost exclusively to these justices by the time of Henry III. 
By this time also the action of trespass had become so popu- 
lar (because tried by jury) that most civil business was drawn 
into the king’s courts. The justices in eyre had the same 
jurisdiction as the common law courts, except that their ex- 
chequer jurisdiction was limited to half a knight’s fee. This 
supplanting of the local courts by the king’s courts marks 
the end of the Archaic Period. 
Other courts of the Archaic Period which we must consider 
are the Court Baron, the Law Merchants’ Courts, and the 
Ecclesiastical Courts. The Court Baron was a manorial court 
composed of the freeholders of the manor, with the steward 
as a kind of clerk, but it was not a court of record. It had 
jurisdiction to try by writ of right claims to land within the 
manor, and personal actions, where the amount claimed was 
not more than forty shillings; but the former proceedings 
could be removed to the county court, and the latter to the 
king’s courts. After judgment the court at Westminster could 
rehear the case on a writ of false judgment. There was 
another side of the Court Baron, presided over by the steward 
as judge, exclusively for the copyholders of the manor. The 
Law Merchant Courts were of two sorts: (1) maritime, 
which were local courts held by an admiral in seaport towns 
as early as Henry I, and (2) commercial, which were courts 
in towns held by the mayor, lord, and guilds for the mer- 
chants. In the maritime courts was developed admiralty law, 
and in the commercial, the law of insurance and negotiable 
instruments. Before the Conquest there were no separate 
Ecclesiastical Courts. The bishop sat along with the earl 
6—36004 
