Our Legal Heritage Part 90

Persons deserting their families shall be deemed incorrigible rogues and punished as such.

Persons such as sorters who purloin or embezzle wool or yarn delivered to them by clothiers and the receivers thereof, knowing the same, shall recompense the party grieved or else be whipped and set in the stocks.

Because benefit of clergy is not allowed to women convicted of felony by reason whereof many women suffer death for small causes, any woman convicted for the felonious taking of any money, goods or chattels greater than 12d. and less than 10s. other than burglary or robbery on the highway or from the person of any man or woman without their knowledge, shall be branded and marked in the hand upon the brawne of the left thumb with a "T" and imprisonment, whipping, stocking, or sending to the house of correction for a year or less.

Actors profaning G.o.d, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost on stage are to be penalized 200s.

In 1604 it was decided that it was not necessary to prove that witchcraft caused the death of a person for there to be punishment for the witchcraftery. All that was necessary now was the practice of witchcraft. The punishment was death by hanging. Also, consulting or feeding an evil spirit was felony.

Sheriffs summoning defendants without a writ shall pay 200s. and damages to the defendant, and 400s. to the King.

Since administrators of goods of people dying intestate who fail to pay the creditors of the deceased often can't pay the debts from their own money, the people (who are not creditors) receiving the goods shall pay the creditors.

No merchant may dress black rabbit skins, nor export them, unless dressed by skinners and bought from them because the skinners have been thus deprived of their livelihoods to their impoverishment throughout the realm.

Beer may be exported when malt is at 16s. per quarter because exporting beer instead of barley and malt will (1) increase the export tax to the King, (2) increase income for coopers and brewers, and (3) provide more jobs in transporting beer, which is more voluminous, to the great comfort of the port towns.

Fish which are sp.a.w.ning and growing in harbors may not be taken by any net or weirs because this practice has hurt fishermen and the realm.

No one shall sell beer or ale to an unlicensed alehousekeeper because abuses there have become intolerable.

No person at least 18 years of age may be naturalized or restored in blood after being attainted unless he takes the sacrament and the Oath of Supremacy [of the king over the church of England], and Oath of Allegiance [to the king].

Money given by will for the apprentices.h.i.+p of poor children shall be managed by incorporated towns and unincorporated parishes. Masters receiving such apprentices shall become bound with sufficient sureties.

Houses of correction shall be built in every county.

London may make a trench to bring water to the north part of the city and shall compensate the owners of lands by agreement with them of an amount or an amount determined by commissioners.

All hospitals and abiding places for the poor, lame, maimed, and impotent persons or for houses of correction founded according to the statute of Elizabeth shall be incorporated and have perpetual succession.

Only lands and hereditaments paying rents to the Crown within the last sixty years shall be claimed by the Crown; the t.i.tle of all persons and corporation who have enjoyed uninterruptedly against the Crown for the last sixty years are confirmed against the Crown.

No one may take more than 8% interest on loans because 10% has caused many, including gentry, merchant, farmer, and tradesman, to sell their land and forsake their trade to pay their debts.

As Attorney General, Edward c.o.ke introduced the crime of "seditious libel" in a case before the Star Chamber in 1606. These written slanders or libels were viewed as incitements to disorder and private vengeance.

Because the tendency to cause quarrels was the essence of the crime, the truth of the libel was not a defense, but might be an aggravation of criminality.

Edward c.o.ke, former Chief Justice of both the Court of Common Pleas and Court of the Queen's Bench, wrote his Reports on court cases of all kinds through forty years and his Inst.i.tutes on the law, in which he explained and systematized the common law and which was suitable for students. This included a commentary and update of Littleton, published in 1627; old and current statutes; a description of the criminal law; and lastly an explanation of the court system, the last two published in 1644. c.o.ke declared that "a man's house is his castle".

c.o.ke waged a long battle with his wife over her extensive property and the selection of a husband for their daughter. In his inst.i.tutes, he described the doctrine of coverture as "With respect to such part of the wife's personality as is not in her possession, as money owing or bequeathed to her, or accrued to her in case of intestacy, or contingent interests, these are a qualified gift by law to the husband, on condition that he reduce them into possession during the coverture, for if he happen to die, in the lifetime of his wife, without reducing such property into possession, she and not his representative will be ent.i.tled to it. His disposing of it to another is the same as reducing it into his own possession." He further states that "The interest of the husband in, and his authority over, the personal estate of the wife, is, however, considerably modified by equity, in some particular circ.u.mstances. A settlement made upon the wife in contemplation of marriage, and in consideration of her fortune, will ent.i.tle the representatives of the husband, though he die before his wife, to the whole of her goods and chattels, whether reduced into possession or not during the coverture. ... A settlement made after marriage will ent.i.tle the representative of the husband to such an estate in preference to the wife. ... A court of equity will not interfere with the husband's right to receive the income during the coverture, though the wife resist the application."

No person convicted of Catholicism may practice the common law as a counsellor, clerk, attorney, or solicitor, nor may practice civil law as advocate, or proctor, nor shall be justice, minister, clerk, or steward in any court, nor practice medicine, nor perform as apothecary, nor be officer in a town, in the army, or navy, or forfeit 100 pounds as punishment. Nor may they be administrators of estates, or have custody of any child as guardian. Nor may they possess any armor, gunpowder, or arms. Nor may anyone print or import Popish books rosaries, or else forfeit 40s

Papists running a school must forfeit 40s. a day for such. Anyone conveying a child beyond the seas to be educated in popery may not sue in the courts, may not hold any office, and shall forfeit 100 pounds and all lands. But the child returning may have his family lands restored to him if he receives the sacrament of the lord's supper in the established church after reaching 18 years of age.

- Judicial Procedure -