Our Legal Heritage Part 12

A man could kill a thief over twelve years in the act of carrying off his property over 8d., e.g. the thief hand-habbende [a thief found with the stolen goods in his hand] or the thief back-berend [a thief found carrying stolen goods on his back].

Cattle theft could be dealt with only by speedy pursuit. A person who had involuntarily lost possession of cattle is to at once raise the hue and cry. He was to inform the hundredman, who then called the t.i.thingmen. All these neighbors had to then follow the trail of the cow to its taker, or pay 30d. to the hundred for the first offense; and 60d.

for the second offense, half to the hundred and half to the lord; and half a pound [10s.] for the third offense; and forfeiture of all his property and declared outlaw for the fourth offense. If the hundred pursued a track into another hundred, notice was to be given to that hundredman. If he did not go with them, he had to pay 30s. to the king.

If a thief was brought into prison, he was to be released after 40 days if he paid his fine of 120s. His kindred could become his sureties, to pay according to his wer if he stole again. If a thief forfeited his freedom and gave himself up, but his kindred forsook him, and he does not know of anyone who will make bot for him; let him then do theow-work, and let the wer abate for the kindred.

Measures and weights of goods for sale shall be correct.

Every man shall have a warrantor to his market transactions and no one shall buy and sell except in a market town; but he shall have the witness of the portreeve or of other men of credit, who can be trusted.

Moneyers accused of minting money outside a designated market were to go to the ordeal of the hot iron with the hand that was accused of doing the fraud. If he was found guilty, his hand that did the offense was to be struck off and be set up on the money- smithy.

No marketing, business, or hunting may be done on Sundays.

No one may bind a freeman, shave his head in derision, or shave off his beard. Shaving was a sign of enslavement, which could be incurred by not paying one's fines for offenses committed.

No clergy may gamble or partic.i.p.ate in games of chance.

The Laws for London were:

"1. The gates called Aldersgate and Cripplegate were in charge of guards.

2. If a small s.h.i.+p came to Billingsgate, one halfpenny was paid as toll; if a larger s.h.i.+p with sails, one penny was paid.

1) If a hulk or merchantman arrives and lies there, four pence is paid as toll.

2) From a s.h.i.+p with a cargo of planks, one plank is given as toll.

3) On three days of the week toll for cloth [is paid] on Sunday and Tuesday and Thursday.

4) A merchant who came to the bridge with a boat containing fish paid one halfpenny as toll, and for a larger s.h.i.+p one penny."

5 - 8) Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and their tolls. (Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat [tallow], and three live pigs for their s.h.i.+ps.)

"3. If the town reeve or the village reeve or any other official accuses anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that he has kept back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he shall swear to this with six others and shall be quit of the charge.

1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the man to whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge.

2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to the King.

3) If he vouches the taxgatherer to warranty [a.s.serting] that he paid toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear himself by the ordeal and by no other means of proof.

4. And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man who, within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's house without permission and commits a breach of the peace of the worst kind and he who a.s.saults an innocent person on the King's highway, if he is slain, shall lie in an unhonored grave.

1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence, but does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds for breach of the King's peace.

2) If he values the goodwill of the town itself, he shall pay us thirty s.h.i.+llings as compensation, if the King will grant us this concession."

5. No base coin or coin defective in quality or weight, foreign or English, may be used by a foreigner or an Englishman. (In 956, a person found guilty of illicit coining was punished by loss of a hand.)

- Judicial Procedure -

There were courts for different geographical communities. The arrangement of the whole kingdom into s.h.i.+res was completed by 975 after being united under King Edgar.

A s.h.i.+re was a larger area of land, headed by an earl. A s.h.i.+re reeve or "sheriff" represented the royal interests in the s.h.i.+res and in the s.h.i.+re courts. This officer came to be selected by the king and earl of the s.h.i.+re to be a judicial and financial deputy of the earl and to execute the law. The office of sheriff, which was not hereditary, was also responsible for the administration of royal lands and royal accounts.

The sheriff summoned the freemen holding land in the s.h.i.+re, four men selected by each community or towns.h.i.+p, and all public officers to meet twice a year at their "s.h.i.+remote". Actually only the great lords - the bishops, earls, and thegns - attended. The s.h.i.+re court was primarily concerned with issues of the larger landholders. Here the freemen interpreted the customary law of the locality. The earl declared the secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual law. They also declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually took a third of the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the s.h.i.+re court, and the bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came to supervise several s.h.i.+res and the sheriff became head of the s.h.i.+re and a.s.sumed the earl's duties there, such as heading the county fyrd. The s.h.i.+re court also heard cases which had been refused justice at the hundredmote and cases of keeping the peace of the s.h.i.+re.

The hundred was a division of the s.h.i.+re, having come to refer to a geographical area rather than a number of households. The monthly hundredmote could be attended by any freeman holding land (or a lord's steward), but was usually attended only by reeve, thegns, parish priest, and four representatives selected by each agrarian community or village - usually villeins. Here transfers of land were witnessed. A reeve, sometimes the sheriff, presided over local criminal and peace and order issues ["leet jurisdiction", which derived from sac and soc jurisdiction] and civil cases at the hundred court. All residents were expected to attend the leet court. The sheriff usually held each hundred court in turn. The suitors to these courts were the same as those of the s.h.i.+re courts. They were the judges who declared the law and ordered the form of proof, such as compurgatory oath and ordeal. They were customarily thegns, often twelve in number. They, as well as the king and the earl, received part of the profits of justice. Summary procedure was followed when a criminal was caught in the act or seized after a hue and cry. Every freeman over age twelve had to be in a hundred and had to follow the hue and cry.

"No one shall make distraint [seizure of personal property out of the possession of an alleged wrongdoer into the custody of the party injured, to procure a satisfaction for a wrong committed] of property until he has appealed for justice in the hundred court and s.h.i.+re court".

In 997, King Ethelred in a law code ordered the sheriff and twelve leading magnates of each s.h.i.+re to swear to accuse no innocent man, nor conceal any guilty one. This was the germ of the later a.s.size, and later still the jury.