under the county. shire under the Norman name of county maintains unim- The shire paired its old position as the governing unit in the local or Norman district administration. From the so-called laws of Henry I. name of we learn that, after the Conquest as before, the shire-moot was attended by the "thegns of the shire," by the parish priest, and the reeve and four selectmen from each township. The full court, which met twice a year, still possessed both civil and criminal jurisdiction, which was exercised according to the old forms of witness, compurgation and ordeal; and the old theory survived that the "suitors" were the judges. The "judices" and the "judices et juratores" of the Pipe Roll of Henry I. probably represent the body of landholders, above the villeins in rank, who constituted the courts of the shire and the hundred, with full power to participate in the administration of justice. A punishment by fines applies to all members who fail to attend and discharge their judicial duties.1 into contact Norman The Old-English system of local administration embodied The Oldin the shire-moot is first brought into contact with the system shire-moot English of central administration embodied in the Norman curia regis brought through the visitations of the itinerant justices, who were sent with the through the shires during the reign of Henry I. to assess the curia regis. revenue. While thus engaged in provincial business the justices sat in the shire-moot, where judicial work soon followed in the path of their fiscal duties. In the reign of Henry II. the system of itinerant judicature became a well organized and permanent institution. After that time the full assembly A full asof the shire, summoned by the sheriff to meet the royal jus- the shire sembly of tices in order to participate with them in the administration meet the justices of justice, and in the transaction of other public business, itinerant. embraced a far more perfect representation of the county than the ordinary shire court. Before the coming of the judges a general summons was issued to the sheriffs, commanding them to summon all archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, counts, barons, knights, and freeholders of their entire bailiwick, and of each vill or township, four lawful men and the reeve, and of each borough twelve lawful burgesses, and all 1 Upon this whole subject, see above, PP. 252-256, 303–306. 2 As to the growth of the itinerant judicature, see above, pp. 247, 248. 8 "Et omnes alios qui coram justi tiariis itinerantibus venire solent et others who by duty or custom were bound to appear before the itinerant justices. Of the extent and variety of the fiscal and judicial business usually transacted before the justices in Agenda of one of these county parliaments, the agenda of the iter of the year 11941 has been frequently cited as a typical illus the iter of 1194. The sheriff becomes the execu the shire. Decline in the judicial powers of the sheriff. the thir tury. tration. After the bishop was by the effect of William's ordinance removed from the shire-moot, and after the ancient earl was tive head of stripped of his official character, the presidency of the shire was left alone to the sheriff, the king's ever-present and immediate representative. The earlier iters, which seem to have been rather fiscal than judicial, were generally held by the sheriffs, who were only occasionally superseded by justices from the curia regis. A steady decline in the judicial powers of the sheriffs resulted, however, from the development of the itinerant system. In 1194 it was provided that the sheriffs should no longer sit as judges in their own shires, and the holding of the pleas of the crown was committed to Coroners of elective officers, - the coroners of the thirteenth century. teenth cen- Although the 24th article of the Great Charter, which forbade both sheriffs and coroners to hold pleas of the crown, does not seem to have been promptly enforced, it led the way to the final settlement of the principle that the sheriff is a mere ministerial officer, and that judicial functions in the courts of assize belonged exclusively to the king's itinerant justices.3 But even after the loss of his judicial functions the sheriff still remained in possession of great local power and importance. He was still the executive head of the shire; he still convened the county court, in which was transacted all of the business of the shire, whether judicial, fiscal, military, or such as arose out of the conservation of the peace. So great were The right his powers that the right to appoint him was claimed in turn to appoint the sheriffs. of the crown, by the baronage, and by the shire communities. In the scheme of reform known as the Provisions of Oxford, which was forced on the crown by the baronage in 1258, it was provided "that in each county there be a vavasour of the same county as sheriff to treat the people of the county well, loyally, and rightfully. And that he take no fee, and that he 1 See Hoveden, vol. iii. pp. 262267. 2 See above, p. 258. 8 See above, p. 319. for a time elective. be sheriff only for a year together." The right to control the nomination of the sheriffs, which thus passed for a moment to the baronage from the king, was challenged in the succeeding reign by the people of the shires, who claimed that they should have the right to choose the sheriffs by election. This demand Edward I. in 1300 conceded to the people The office of those shires where they desired to have it, and where the office was not "of fee," or hereditary. This privilege, which seems to have been sparingly exercised, was withdrawn by ordinance early in the reign of Edward II.3 Upon a renewal of the contest in the reign of Edward III. he ordered that the sheriffs be elected by the shires; but after a few years more Finally apit was finally provided that the sheriffs should be appointed the officers pointed by by the officers of the exchequer, and that they should hold of the exoffice for not more than one year.1 chequer coroner. When in 1294 the sheriffs were forbidden to sit as judges The in their own shires, the holding of pleas of the crown was committed to four officers, three knights and a clerk, — who were always elected in full county court. These elected officers, whose duty it was to look after the pleas of the crown and other branches of the king's business in the shire, were the coroners of the thirteenth century. Although the coroner has been stripped of his ancient dignity, and although his chief remaining duties are the holding of inquest in case of violent or sudden death, and the discharging of the functions of sheriff in the event of the disability of that officer, the office itself is still elective. The freeholders The office who in full county court elected the coroners also elected in the same manner the venderers, the officers who stood Venderers. between the crown and the people in the administration of the forest laws.7 1 Cf. Ann. Burton, pp. 446-453; Select Charters, 2d ed., pp. 391, 395. 2 "Le roi ad grante a soen poeple qil eient esleccion de leur viscontes en chescun conte, ou visconte ne est mie de fee, sil voelent."— Statutes of the Realm, i. P 139. 8 Statutes of the Realm, i. p. 160. Fadera, ii. pp. 1049, 1099. Upon the whole subject, see Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. ii. pp. 2c6-208, 382. The Bishop concludes (p. 208) that "the real loss of his ancient importance re sulted from the limitation of his period 520. Præterea in quolibet comitatu 6 Cf. Bigelow, Procedure, p. 131. still elective. The shire school of The shire, which was recognized by the state as a commuthe training nitas" 1 or corporation, and whose court or assembly was the the English place in which was transacted all local public business, whether self-govern- fiscal, judicial, or administrative, was the preparatory school in people in ment. Election and repreemployed sentation in every branch of business. Presentment of criminals. which the main body of the English people were trained for the work of self-government in a higher sphere. Under the new order of things to which the Conquest gave birth, the principles of election and representation, which from the earliest times had entered into the structure and procedure of the shire-moot, were still employed in every branch of judicial, fiscal, or remedial work which devolved upon the shire community. Into the new system of presentment and recognition. by jury, election and representation both entered, in different forms and in different combinations, as an active and familiar principle. Under the Old-English procedure the presentment of criminals was probably made either by a private accuser, by the reeve and four men of the township, or more often perhaps by the twelve senior thegns of each hundred or wapentake. By the Assize of Clarendon, under which the ancient system of presentment was reorganized and reëstablished, the representatives of the township and hundred were brought into a fresh and formal union in the discharge of a public duty with which each body of representatives had been immemorially connected. In the reign of Richard I. the presentment system was still more perfectly reorganized upon a basis distinctly representative. Under the last arrangement "four knights are to be chosen from the whole county, who by their oaths shall choose two lawful knights of each hundred or wapentake, and those two shall choose upon oath ten knights of each hundred or wapentake, . . . so that these twelve may answer under all heads concerning their whole The system hundred or wapentake." 8 The principles of election and repof recogni- resentation thus embodied in the system of presentment were as clearly defined in the system of recognitions. By the terms of the Grand Assize, a writ was directed to the sheriff commanding him to summon four lawful knights of the neighbor tions. 1 "A city or borough is, in its corpo- 2 See above, pp. 306, 307. milites de toto comitatu, qui per sacramentum suum eligant duos legales milites de quolibet hundredo vel wapentacco, et illi duo eligant," etc. Hoveden, vol. iii. p. 262. tive princi with the taxation, erty is under con hood wherein the disputed property lay, who were directed to choose twelve lawful knights of the same neighborhood cognizant of the facts, who were to declare on oath who had the best right to the land in question. In the other assizes the procedure was substantially the same, with the exception that the twelve were chosen by the sheriff without the interIvention of the four electors.1 In either event the chosen recognitors, who were regarded as mere witnesses, acted in a representative capacity, as representatives of a particular community they declared its testimony as to the fact in question. By the employment of local jurors in fiscal as well as Representa judicial business, the representative principle was first brought ple comes into contact with the system of taxation. This contact first in contact arose when personal property and income were brought under system of contribution. By the Assize of Arms, in which each free- when perman was required to equip himself with arms according to sonal prophis means, and in which local jurors were required to deter- brought mine the liability of each, the first step was taken towards tribution. the taxation of rent and chattels. Seven years later, Henry II. took the final step when with the consent of the great council he demanded a tenth of all movables to aid the host of Christendom in the war against Saladin. In order to fairly assess each man's liability to the tithe, Henry employed his favorite institution of inquest by local jurors. Whenever any The Salaone was suspected of contributing less than his share, four or six lawful men of the parish were chosen to declare on oath local jurors, what he should give. In the next reign, when the Danegeld assessment was revived under the name of carucage, the new system was tended to extended to the assessment of real property liable to that tax. 2 real propEarly in the reign of Henry III. a writ was issued for the collection of a carucage in which the sheriff was ordered to cause two knights to be chosen in the full assembly, and by the "will and counsel" of the county court, to take part in the assessment and collection of the tax.3 din tithe a method of soon ex erty. In the review heretofore made of the primitive system for The shire the preservation of the peace, whose difficult history extends police sysback to the very earliest times, the conclusion was reached 1 See above, pp. 329, 330. 2 See above, pp. 298, 299. 8 "De voluntate et consilio omnium de comitatu in pleno comitatu eligentur ad hoc faciendum." Close Rolls, i. 437. Cf. Select Charters, 2d ed., pp. 351-353. tem. |