by the Justices of the Peace at quarter sessions, and were usually
small gentry or well-to-do yeomen. They were the intermediaries
between the justices and the petty constables. The petty constable
was the executive official of the village. He was usually elected
by the suitors to the leet court of the manor for a year. He might
be a farmer, an artisan, a carpenter, a shoemaker, or many times a
tradesman, a butcher, or baker. He often visited the alehouse to
learn of any trouble in the making. He would intervene in quarrels
and riots and tell the participants to desist in the King's name.
If they didn't, he could call on all bystanders to help him "force
a quiet". He had to lead the rioters and causers of injuries to
others, hold them there until he could bring him before the
nearest justice. He would inform the justice of plots to trespass
or forcibly enter land to take possession. He saw to it that no
new cottages were built in the villages without due authority. He
supervised markets and inns. He reported lapses of care for
apprentices by their masters to the justice. At harvest time, he
called upon all able bodied persons to assist and punished those
who didn't respond by putting them in the stocks or fining them
forty shillings. He arrested and whipped vagrants and sturdy
rogues and sent them back to their place of birth through
constables on the way. If a horse was stolen, he raised the hue
and cry to all neighboring constables. He made inquiry into the
paternity of the coming child of an unmarried pregnant girl to
make him take responsibility for the child and pay her 8d. a week
lest it fall into the responsibility of the village. In a town, he
might have watchmen to help him see that the streets were peaceful
at night. The constable assisted the Justice of the Peace, the
high constable, and the Sheriff. He pressed men into military
service. He collected taxes for the Sheriff and collected the
money for purveyance, the money for the poor, maimed soldiers, and
various kinds of prisoners, which the parish had to pay. He was
often the spokesman for the village in village concerns, such as
too many alehouses, brought to the attention of justices at
quarter sessions. The constable and churchwardens together
collected money for the parish, looked after the needy, and kept
in close touch with the overseers of the poor, who cared for the
sick and old, found work for the idle, took charge of bastards,
apprenticed orphan children, and provided supplies for the
workhouse.
In 1609 the East India Company was given a monopoly by the Crown
that was indefinitely long as long as it was profitable to the
realm in the King's opinion. Interlopers were to forfeit their
ships and goods, one-half to the Company and one-half to the
Crown. Monopoly status made the Company competitive with the Dutch
and Portuguese monopoly companies. The Crown received a gift or a
loan from the Company in return. At first, the Company raised
capital for each separate voyage. But voyages tried to undercut
each other and rival factions squabbled over cargoes. So the
company then raised a "terminable joint-stock" for a period of
years. The first of these was issued in 1613-16 and financed a
fleet every year for four years. Subscriptions were called in by
yearly installments and dividends paid out yearly. The voyage of
1613 brought shareholders a profit equivalent to about 11% a year.
By 1620, the Company operated thirty to forty "tall ships", many
built in its own dockyards. These dockyards were so
technologically advanced that they were daily viewed by visitors
and ambassadors. Here, besides wet and dry docks, there were
timber yards, a foundry and cordage works for supplying the ships'
hardware and a bakery and saltings for their provisioning. More
than 200 craftsmen were directly employed in the yard. Overall the
company was one of London' largest employers.
In 1606, the first charter of the Virginia Company was issued for
trading purposes. It gave the settlers "all liberties, franchises,
and immunities" they had in England. To oversee this colony, the
Crown appointed a council. Virginia established the Episcopal
Church by law. It became a joint-stock company in 1609. But
exports were few (timber, soap ashes, pitch, tar, and dyes) for
several years, and then tobacco emerged as a source of profit.
King James imposed a heavy duties on imported tobacco because it
corrupted man's breath with a stinking smoke.
In 1607, the Muscovy Company, hired Henry Hudson to find a
northwest passage through North America to the Pacific Ocean.
Life was difficult for Puritan Separatists, who wanted to separate
from the established church. They were imprisoned and their houses
were watched day and night for illegal meetings. In 1620, after
trying Holland and when there was a depression in England, a few
Puritan Separatists, along with other pilgrims, left for Virginia
in the Mayflower, but landed in New England and founded Plymouth
Colony. They were led by William Bradford and William Brewster,
their spiritual leader. They planted fields and made friends with
the Indians. In 1621, they secured a patent to the merchants and
planters together for a voluntary joint-stock company in New
England. Later, it became the self-governing Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
The canons of the church of 1604 provided for excommunication for
anyone who propounded that the king did not have the same
authority in ecclesiastical matters as the godly kings among the
Jews and Christian emperors in the primitive church, that the
Church of England was not a true and apostolic church, that
worship according the Book of Common prayer and administration of
sacraments was corrupt or superstitious, or that other methods of
the church were wicked, unchristian, or superstitious.
Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of criminal
offenses because it had been abused by thieves paying their rent
by thieving at night. It remained available to those accused of
civil offenses.
- The Law -
Churchwardens of every parish shall oversee the poor in their
parish. They shall, with consent of the Justices of the Peace, set
to work children whose parents cannot maintain them and also set
to work married or unmarried persons who have no trade and no
means to maintain themselves. Churchwardens shall tax every
inhabitant, including parson and vicar and every occupier of land
and houses as they shall think fit. There will be a convenient
stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron and other necessary ware
and stuff to set the poor on work. There will be competent sums of
money for the relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and others
not able to work, and also for the putting out of children to be
apprentices. Child apprentices may be bound until 21 years of age
or until time of marriage. They shall account to the Justices of
the Peace for all money received and paid. The penalty for absence
or neglect is 20s. If any parish cannot raise sufficient funds,
the Justices of the Peace may tax other nearby parishes to pay,
and then the hundred, and then the county. Grandparents, parents,
and children of every poor, old, blind, lame, or impotent person
not able to work, being of sufficient ability, shall at their own
charge, relieve and maintain every such poor person in that manner
and according to that rate as Justices of the Peace of that county
determine, or forfeit 20s. per month. Two Justices of the Peace
may commit to gaol or house of correction persons refusing to work
and disobedient churchwardens and overseers. The overseers may,
with the consent of the lord of the manor, build houses on common
or waste land for the poor at the expense of the parish, in which
they may place more than one family in each houses.
Every parish shall pay weekly 2-10d. toward the relief of sick,
hurt, and maimed soldiers and mariners. Counties with more than
fifty parishes need pay only 2- 6d. The county treasurer shall
keep registers and accounts. Soldiers begging shall lose their
pension and shall be adjudged a common rogue or vagabond subject
to imprisonment and punishment.
Sheriffs summoning defendants without a writ shall pay 200s. and
damages to the defendant, and 400s. to the King.
Persons stealing crops from lands or fruit from trees shall be
whipped.
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.
Every person shall receive the holy communion in church at least
once a year or forfeit 20 pounds for the first year and 40 pounds
for the second year, and threescore pounds for every year after
until he takes the said sacrament.
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. 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 forfeit 40s.
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.
Spawning and growing fish in harbors may not be taken by any nets
or weirs because this practice has hurt fishermen and the realm.
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.
Actors profaning God, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost on stage are to be
penalized 200s.
No one shall sell beer or ale to an unlicensed alehousekeeper
because abuses there have become intolerable.
Every person convicted of drunkenness shall be penalized 5s. or
else placed in the stocks for six hours, because the loathsome and
odious sin of drunkenness has grown into common use lately and it
is the root of many other sins, such as bloodshed, stabbings,
murder, swearing, fornication, and adultery, and is detrimental to
the arts and manual trades and diverse workmen, who become
impoverished. Offenders convicted a second time shall be bound
with two sureties to the sum of 200s.
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 apprenticeship 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.
Lewd women, having bastards, chargeable to the parish, shall be
committed to the house of correction to be punished and set to
work for one year.
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.
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 title of all
persons and corporation who have enjoyed uninterruptedly against
the Crown for the last sixty years are confirmed against the
Crown.
A seminal patent-protection law was passed in 1624. It stated that
all monopolies to any person or persons, bodies politic or
corporate for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using
of anything within the realm are void. This does not include
London or towns. Parties aggrieved by such may recover treble
damages in the superior courts, with double costs. Excepted are
existing patents, for 21 years or less, for new inventions and for
future patents for 14 years or less. Excepted also are patents for
printing or making saltpeter, gunpowder, shot or ordinance, etc.;
patents concerning allum mines or Newcastle coal or glass making
or export of calves' skins or making smalts [deep-blue pigment or
glass] or melting iron ore; grants of office; and licenses for
taverns.
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.
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.
Mothers concealing the death of a bastard baby shall suffer as for
murder, unless one witness proves the child was born dead.
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.
In 1604 it was decided that it was not necessary to prove
witchcraft caused the death of a person for there to be punishment
for it. 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.
As Attorney General, Coke 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 Coke, 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 Institutes on the
law, in which he explained and systemized 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. Coke declared that
"a man's house is his castle".
Coke waged a long battle with his wife over her extensive property
and the selection of a husband for their daughter. In his
institutes, 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 entitled
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 circumstances. A settlement made upon the wife in
contemplation of marriage, and in consideration of her fortune,
will entitle 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 entitle the representative of
the husband to such as 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."
- Judicial Procedure -
Defendants may not petition to remove a case to the Westminster
courts after a jury is selected because such has resulted in
unnecessary expense to plaintiffs and delay for defendants in
which they suborn perjury by obtaining witnesses to perjure
themselves.
In 1619, by the writ of quo warranto, a government office or
official could be made to explain by what right he performed
certain acts.
James I asserted an authority to determine the jurisdiction
between the various courts.
The Court of High Commission heard mostly matrimonial cases, but
also moral offences both of clergy and laity, and simony,
plurality, drunkenness, and other clerical irregularities.
The Star Chamber Court still was primarily directed against force
and fraud and defended the common people from over-mighty lords
and over-pliable Justices of the Peace, for instance by deterring
enclosure. It also enforced monopolies. However, there was a
growing tendency for King James, who sat on it, to abuse its power
with high fines. A lord accused with foul language by a huntsman
of following hounds of a chase too closely threatened to use his
horse whip on the huntsman's master when the huntsman threatened
to complain to his master. The lord was fined 10,000 pounds.
James' council used torture to obtain information from accused
felons about possible conspiracies against him.
The ordinary administrative court of first instance is formed by
the single Justices of the Peace, who issue orders regarding
public safety, order, public morals, health, the poor, highways,
water, fields, forests, fisheries, trade, building, and fire, and
particularly begging and vagrancy as well as regulations of wages,
servants, apprentices, and day laborers. For more important
resolutions, the special sessions of the Justices of the Peace of
a hundred for a court of intermediate instance and appointed
overseers of the poor. All Justices of the Peace were present at
the quarter sessions, which were held at least four times a year,
and are primarily a court of appeal from penal sentences, but also
make the county rate, appoint county treasurers and county prison
and house of correction governors, regulate prices and wages,
settle fees of county officials, grant licenses for powder mills,
and register dissenting chapels. It heard appeals expressly
allowed by statute. The central courts also heard appeals by writ
of certiorari as to whether an administrative act was in
accordance with existing law, whether the court is competent, and
whether the administrative law has been rightly interpreted. This
writ of certiorari ceased in the 1700s.
Justices of the Peace who have the power to give restitution of
possession to tenants of any freehold estate of their lands or
tenements which have been forcibly entered and withheld, shall
have like power for tenants for term of years, tenants by copy of
court roll, guardians by knight service, tenant by elegit statute
merchant and staple of lands or tenements.
The Justices of the Peace were chosen by the Crown, usually by the
Chancellor. The qualifications were residence in the county,
suitability of moral character, religious uniformity, and the
possession of lands or tenements with twenty pounds a year. They
were almost exclusively country gentlemen, except in the towns. In
the corporate towns, the mayor, bailiff, recorder, and senior
aldermen were ex officio [by virtue of the office] Justices of the
Peace. Their main duty was to keep the peace. If a justice heard
of a riot in the making, he could compel individuals at the place
to give bonds of good-a-bearing and cause a proclamation to be
made in the King's name for them to disperse. Two justices or more
had the authority to arrest the rioters and send a record of it to
the assizes and to the Privy Council. If the riot had taken place
before their arrival, they could make an inquiry by a jury and
certify the results to the King and his Council. The justices had
men brought before them on many kinds of charges, on their own
summons, or on initiative of the petty constable. They tried to
draw these men into confession by questioning. After indictment, a
person had the choice of a petty jury trial or paying a fine. The
Justices of the Peace could insist upon presentment juries or
surveys of offenses by local officers, but, without the
institution of policemen, not many crimes were prosecuted because
victims were unwilling or could not afford to initiate judicial
action. Their unwillingness was partly due to the severity of
penalties, e.g. death for the theft of over 12s. and whippings and
fines for misdemeanors. Further, the offender was frequently a
neighbor with whom one would have to live. Mediation by the local
constable often took place. When there an outbreak of lawlessness
in an area, a commission might be set up especially for that area
to enforce the law.
Assault cases were common in courts of assize and courts of
quarter sessions. The quarter sessions were those of a number of
Justices of the Peace held for a couple of days four times a year
for the more important cases in the jurisdiction of the Justices
of the Peace. Assault was violence or threat of imminent violence.
Fines were graduated according to the means of the offender, who
was usually bound over to keep the peace. Most involved offenders
and victims who were neighbors and included people of substantial
standing in the village. Also, a sizable minority were directed
against local officers such as constables, bailiffs, or tax-
collectors.
Three-fourths of all assize indictments and many quarter-sessions
indictments were for various types of theft, including petty
larceny, grand larceny, housebreaking, burglary, sheep stealing,
and robbery. These offenses were mostly opportunistic rather than
planned, except for London's underworld of professional thieves
and the cutpurses of country markets and highway robbers on lonely
roads. There were substantial peaks in theft in periods of harvest
failure and industrial depression, especially by vagrants. But
most of the poor never stole.
The Justices of the Peace usually deferred to the learned Justices
of Assize for cases of felony, murder, rape, highway robbery, and
witchcraft. Most homicides were the result of an impassioned
argument leading to blows inflicted by nearby commonplace items
picked up and used as weapons. Only 18% of homicides were within
the family. Men were still declared outlaw if they failed to come
to court after repeated summons.
The Lord Keeper regularly advised the assize justices, before each
circuit departure, to relieve the poor, supply the markets,
maintain the roads (which were frequently impassable in winter for
wagons or coaches), enforce church attendance, suppress
superfluous and disorderly alehouses, and put down riots,
robberies, and vagrancy, and in times of dearth, to suppress
speculation in foodstuffs, prevent famine, and preserve order. In
fact, the justices were most attentive to offenses which affected
them as rate payers for the poor. These were offenses against
cottaging laws (e.g. erection of cottages which lacked the
statutory four acres of land), harboring of "inmates", disputes of
settlement of paupers, bastardy, vagrancy, church nonattendance,
and above all, disorderly alehouses. Alehousing had been a well-
established means of poor employment since the 1200s, so it was
hard to enforce licensing laws. Further, alehouses were the
centers of social life for the common people; both women and men
met their friends there. If an attorney or solicitor delays his
client's suits to work his own gain or over charges his client,
the client can recover his costs and treble damages and the
attorney and solicitor shall be disbarred. None may be admitted to
any court of the king but such as have been brought up in the same
court or is otherwise well-practiced in soliciting of causes and
has been found by their dealings to be skillful and honest. An
attorney who allows another to use his name shall forfeit 400
shillings and be disbarred.
Offenders shall pay the charge of their own conveyance to gaol or
the sum shall be levied by sale of their goods so that the King's
subjects will no longer be burdened thereby.
Plaintiffs' costs shall be paid by the defendants where there is a
judgment against the defendant in all actions in which the
plaintiff is entitled to costs on judgment for him, to discourage
frivolous and unjust suits.
By 1616, Chancery could order injunctions to stop activities.
In Slade's case of 1602, the Court of the Queen's Bench held that
assumpsit may be brought in place of the action of debt. So
assumpsit supplants debt for recovering liquidated sums and is
then called "indebitatus assumpsit".