sufficient power for themselves and the commonalty of the city, town, borough, and liberty aforesaid, to do and consent to those things, which at the said parliament by the common. council of the said kingdom, with God's assistance shall happen to be ordained upon the affairs in the said precept specified, according to the form and effect of the said precept. In witness whereof, as well the said sheriff as the aforesaid bailiff, [citizens, burgesses, and inhabitants] of the city, town, borough, and liberty aforesaid, to these indentures their seals have interchangeably put the day and year first above mentioned*. C. A. M. B. . J. C. J. C. In some places the indenture of return to the precept has usually been between the sheriff and the returning officer, in others it has been usual for some of the electors also, to join as in that above; where no electors join, those parts of the above form which are within brackets should be omitted. The stat. 12 Ric. 2. c. 12. In what Cases the Lords and Spiritual Persons shall be contributory to the Expences of the Knights of Parliament. "ITEM, in the right of the levying of the expences of the knights coming to the parliament for the commons of the counties, it is accorded and assented, that the said levying be made, as it hath been used before this time; (2) joining to the same, that if any lord, or any other man, spiritual or temporal, hath purchased any lands or tenements, or other possessions, that were wont to be contributory to such expences before the time of the said purchase, that the said lands, tenements, and possessions, and the tenants of the same be contributory to the said expences, as the said lands, tenements, and possessions, were wont to do before the time of the same purchase." * Although the statutes respecting parliamentary wages, are, as far as regards such wages, from change of circumstances, become of no importance, yet, as they occasionally furnish a ground of argument as connected with election subjects, and, as in Wales some rights of election depend in a certain degree upon them, it was thought right to insert them, in addition to which, it may not be useless to draw attention to such parts of the law as are become useless and nugatory, as, while they remain unrepealed, it is always possible that they may become a source of vexation. The stat. 23 H. 6. c. 10. The Order of levying the Wages of the Knights of the Parliament. ITEM, whereas, before this time, divers sheriffs, in divers counties of England, by colour of writs to them directed, to levy the wages of the knights of the shires for the time being of the parliament of the king that now is, and of his noble progenitors, have levied more money than hath been due to the said knights, and more than they have delivered, keeping and retaining great part of the money to their own use and profit, to their officers and servants, to the great loss of the common people of the said counties." (2) The king, considering the premises, hath ordained, by the authority aforesaid, that the sheriff of every county for the time being, in the next county-court holden in their counties after the delivery of the said writs directed to them, shall make open proclamation, that the coroners, and every chief constable of the peace of the said counties, and the bailiffs of every hundred or wapentake of the same county, and all other which will be at the assessing of the wages of the knights of the This statute is mentioned in Mr. Disney's statutes as having been repealed by the stat. 14. Geo. 3. c. 58. but, upon reference to the latter act that appears not to be the case, nor is the author aware of any other act repealing it. levy more mo sessed. 13 H. 6. c. 10. shires, shall be at the next county there to be holden to assess the said wages of the said knights; (3) and that the sheriff, under-sheriff, coroners, or bailiffs, for the time being, be there at the same time in their proper person, upon pain of forfeiture, to the king, of every of them that maketh default, 40s.; (4) at which time the said sheriff or under-sheriff, in the The penalty, if presence of them that shall come at that time the sheriff, &c. to the same, and of the suitors of the same ney than is as- counties then being there, in the full county, well and duly shall assess every hundred to that assessable by itself, to pay a certain sum for the wages of the knights of the shire, so that the whole sum of all the hundreds do not exceed the sum which shall be due to the said knights. (5) And after that, in the same county, they shall assess, well and lawfully, every village within the said hundreds, which should be there assessable, to a certain sum for the payment of the said wages; so that the whole sum of all the towns within any of the said hundreds do not exceed the sum assessed, upon the hundred of which they be. (6) And that neither the said sheriffs, under-sheriffs, bailiffs, nor any other officer, for the cause aforesaid, shall levy more money of any village than that whereunto they were assessed, in manner and form as they are assessed: (7) and if any do or will assess any hundred or village otherwise than is aforesaid, that they shall forfeit, for every default, to the king, twenty pounds, and to any man which will sue in this case, ten pounds. Who may pro- § 2. And that the said sheriffs well and duly shall levy the money so assessed, upon secute on this act, and by what writ. the aforesaid villages, as speedily as they well 23 H. 6. c. 10. may after the said assessing, and the same shall deliver to the said knights, according to the writs thereof to be made, upon the said penalties; (2) and he that will sue in this case, shall be thereunto admitted, and shall have for his action in this case, a scire facias against him that offendeth, contrary to this ordinance: (3) and if the defendant, duly warned in the same, The penalty on make default, or else appear, and be in the ofienders. same convict, that then the plaintiffs shall recover against them which be so convict, ten pounds, to their own use, over the said twenty pounds, with their treble damages for the costs of their suits. only in the § 3. And the justices of the king's bench, Knights wages and of the common pleas, justices of assizes, shall be levied and gaol-delivery, and justices of the peace in accustomed their county, shall have power to inquire, hear places. and determine of all the said defaults, as well by inquiry at the king's suit as by action at the suit of the parties; (2) and that all such expences of knights shall not be levied of any other villages, seigniories, or places, but of such whereof it hath been levied before this time. § 4. And that, in every such writ from henceforth to be made, to levy the wages of the said knights, this act shall be comprehended in the same. |