No. XVII.

14 Edw. III. [ No. XVII. ] 14 Edward III. st. 1. c. 16.-Before what Persons Nisi Prius may be granted.

st. 1. c. 16.

c. 13.

[Inserted ante Class I. No. 13.]

[No. XVIII. ] 28 Edward III. c. 8.-An Attaint shall be granted as well upon a Bill as upon a Writ of Trespass.

[No. XIX. ] 28 Edward III. c. 13.-The Warranty of Packing of Wool shall be put out. An Inquest shall be de Medietate Lingua where an Alien is Party.

28 Edward III. II. AND that in all manner of inquests and proofs which be to be taken or made amongst aliens and denizens, be they merchants or other, as well before the mayor of the staple as before any other justices or ministers, although the King be party, the one half of the inquests or proof shall be denizens, and the other half of aliens, if so many aliens and foreigners be in the town or place where such inquest or proof is to be taken, that be not parties, nor with the parties in contracts, pleas, or other quarrels, whereof such inquests or proofs ought to be taken; and if there be not so many aliens, then shall there be put in such inquests or proofs as many aliens as shall be found in the 'same towns or places which be not thereto parties, nor with the parties, ' as afore is said, and the remnant of denizens, which be good men, and not suspicious to the one party nor to the other.' (1)

[No. XX. ] 34 Edward III. c. 4.-What Sort of People shall be returned upon every Jury.

[No. XXI. ] 34 Edward III. c. 7.—An Attaint will lie as well in Plea Real as Personal.

[No. XXII.] 34 Edward III. c. 8.-The Penalty of a Juror taking Reward to give his Verdict.

[ No. XXIII.] 38 Edward III. stat. 1. c. 12.-The Punishment of a Juror taking Reward to give Verdict, and of Embraceors.

[ No. XXIV. ] 42 Edward III. c. 11.-Copies of Panels shall be delivered to the Parties six Days before the Sessions.

(1) The statute of the staple, 27 Edward III. c. 8. contained a provision, that upon all plaints before the mayor of the staple between the merchants and ministers thereof, upon which an inquest should be awarded, if both parties were strangers, it should be tried by strangers; if both denizens, it should be tried by denizens; if one a denizen and the other an alien, one moiety of the inquest should be denizens and the other aliens. By stat. 13 and 14 Charles II. "For preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in his Majesty's Customs," it is provided, that in all suits concerning tonnage and poundage, or ships or goods forfeited for unlawful impor

tation or exportation, there shall not be any party jury, but only such as are the natural and free-born subjects of the King. By the IRISH Statute, 29 George II. c. 6. it is provided, that on the trial of any issue between a Protestant and a Papist, it shall be lawful to challenge any Papist returned as a juror: this seems to be repealed by the modern statutes in favour of Roman Catholics; see 2 Gab. 258. At one period, in France, disputes between Protestants and Roman Catholics were to be decided by a court composed of an equal number of persons of each profession; but this was abolished upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

No. XXV. ] 7 Richard II. c. 7.-In what case a Nisi
Prius shall be granted at the Suit of any of the Jurors.

[ No. XXVI. ] 9 Richard II. c. 3.-A Writ of Error or Attaint maintainable by him in the Reversion.

[See this at length infra.]

[ No. XXVII. ] 2 Henry IV. c. 7.-In what Case the Plaintiff shall not be nonsuit if the Verdict pass against him.

[No. XXVIII. ] 2 Henry V. stat. 2. c. 3.-Of what Estate those Jurors must be, which are to pass touching the Life of Man, Plea real, or forty Marks Damages.

[ No. XXIX. ] 3 Henry V. stat. 2. c. 5.-In which Courts an Attaint may be brought upon a false Verdict given in the City of Lincoln, and by whom it shall be tried.

[No. XXX. ] 6 Henry VI. c. 2.-How long Time the Copies of Panels in Assise shall be delivered to the Parties before the Sessions of the Justices.

66

No. XXV.

7 Richard II.

c. 7.

[No. XXXI.] 8 Henry VI. c. 29.-An Inquest shall be de Medietate Linguæ, where an Alien is Party. ITEM, Whereas in the Parliament holden at Westminster the twenty- 8 H. VI. c. 29. eighth year of King Edward the Third, amongst other things in 28 Edw.3.c.13. "favour and liberty of the merchants strangers repairing into the realm "of England, it was ordained, That if a plea or debate be moved before "the mayor of the staple amongst the merchants or ministers of the 66 same, and to try the truth thereof an inquest or proof is to be taken, "if the one party and the other be strange, it should be tried by "strangers; and if the one party and the other be denizens, it should be "tried by denizens; and if the one party be denizen, and the other an "alien, the one half shall be of denizens, and the other half aliens; and "moreover, that in all inquests and proofs which shall be taken and "made betwixt aliens and denizens, be they merchants or other, as well "before the mayor of the staple as before any other judges or ministers, "although our Lord the King be party, the one half of the inquest or "proof should be of denizens, and the other half of aliens, if there be "so many aliens in the town or place where such inquest or proof is to "be taken, that be not parties, nor with the parties in contracts, pleas, or other quarrels, whereof such inquests or proofs ought to be taken; "and if there be not so many aliens, then so many aliens shall be put in "such inquests or proof as shall be found in the same places or towns "which be not parties thereunto, nor with the parties as before is said, "and the remnant of denizens which be good men, and not suspect of "the one party nor of the other. Sithence which ordinance the said "merchants aliens have been always demeaned and ruled, as well in the "staples, as in other of the King's courts, after the form of the said "ordinance, until now of late they have been thereof restrained and "impeached by colour of another statute made in the Parliament

66

2 H. 5. st.2.c.3.

66

66

66

No. XXXI. " holden at Westminster the second year of King Henry, Father to our 8 Henry VI. "Lord the King that now is; by which statute for the great mischiefs, damages, and disherisons, which daily do happen through the realm, c. 29. "as well in case of the death of a man, as in case of freehold and other cases, by them that pass in inquests in the said case, which were "common jurors, and other which had but little or nothing to live upon "but by such inquests, and which had nothing to lose because of their "false oaths, whereby they do the more lightly offend their consciences; "and for amendment and correction thereof to be had, it was ordained "and stablished, That no person be admitted to pass in any inquest 66 upon trial of the death of a man, nor in any inquest between party “and party in plea real and personal, whereof the debt and the da66 mages declared do amount to forty marks, except the same person "have lands or tenements to the yearly value of forty shillings above "all charges; because of which restraint and impeachment so made to "divers merchants aliens, many of the same merchants aliens have with“ drawn and daily do withdraw them, and eschew to come and be con"versant on this side the sea, and likely it is, that all the same mer"chants aliens will depart out of the same realm of England if the said "last statute be not more plainly declared, and the said merchants "aliens ruled, governed, and demeaned in such inquests, according to "the first ordinance aforesaid, to the great diminishing of the King's subsidies, and grievous loss and damage of all his said realm of England. Our Lord the King, considering the premises, and how that it was not the meaning of the said late King, nor of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the said Parliament, to hinder or prejudice "the said first ordinance by the said last statute, and that the said last "statute was made in respect of the mischiefs and disherisons that hap"pened by the false oaths of the common jurors of the realm of Eng"land, as it appeareth by express words of the same statute, and how "that the said merchants aliens be not common jurors, nor inhabiting "within the said realm, nor may not purchase nor enjoy any lands or A confirmation" tenements in the same, without the King's special licence;" and the of the statute of same our Lord the King, willing therein to provide for the weal and profit of him and all his realm, and to eschew the damages and inconveniences which may easily happen in this behalf, and also to give to the said merchants aliens the greater courage and desire to come with 'their wares and merchandizes into this realm, by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being in this present Parliament, ' hath declared the said last statute, made in the time of his father, to be in no wise prejudicial to the said ordinance, nor to extend itself 'but only to the inquests to be taken betwixt denizen and denizen, and 'not to other inquests and proofs aforesaid; and the said first ordinance 'to be effectual and stand in force, and to be put in due execution ac'cording to the form of the same, notwithstanding the said last statute, or that the aliens have not lands or tenements to the value of forty shillings by the year, according to the purport of the same last statute ' and ordinance.'

28 Ed. 3. c. 13. ordaining that an inquest shall be de medietate linguæ, where an alien is party.

And the statute

of 2 H. 5. st. 2. c. 3. limited to inquests taken

between deni

zen and deni

zen.

66

46

[ No. XXXII. ] 11 Henry VI. c. 4.-The Plaintiffs in Attaint shall recover their Costs and Damages.

[ No. XXXIII.] 15 Henry VI. c. 5.-What Sort of Persons may be impanelled upon an Attaint.

[No. XXXIV. ] 18 Henry VI. c. 2.-They which have Gavelkind Lands to the yearly Value of Twenty Pounds, may be returned in Attaints.

[No. XXXV. ] 8 Edward IV. c. 3.-An Act for Jurors

in Middlesex.

[ No. XXXVI. ] 7 Henry VII. c. 5.-Riens deins le gard shall be no Challenge upon any Issue to be tried in London.

[ No. XXXVII. ] 11 Henry VII. c. 21.-The Ability of every Man who shall be impanelled in any Inquest or Attaint in London.

[No. XXXVIII.] 11 Henry VII. c. 24.-An Attaint shall be maintainable against the Party and Petty Jury: The Process therein, the Ability of the Jurors, the Pleas of the Defendant and Petit Jury, and their Punishment being attainted. Panels returned by the Sheriff to inquire for the King, may be reformed by the Justices. Last continued by 1 H. 8. c. 11.

[No. XXXIX. ] 3 Henry VIII. c. 12.-The Act that Justices may return Impanels for the King by their Discretions.

WHEREAS great extortions and oppressions be, and have been

No.

XXXV.

8 Edw. IV.

c. 3.

c. 12.

within the more party of all the counties and shires within this 3 Henry VIII. ⚫ realm of England, by the subtilty and untrue demeanor of sheriffs and their ministers, committed and done unto many persons in great number of the King's subjects, by mean and making and returning at every 'sessions holden within the said counties and shires, for the body of ⚫ the shire, in taking and putting in, and returning of names of such persons, as for the singular advantage, benefit, and gain of the said sheriffs and their ministers, will be wilfully forsworn and perjured, by the sinister labour of the said sheriffs and their ministers; by reason whereof many and divers substantial persons (the King's true subjects) contrary to good equity and rightwiseness, have divers times, and many wrongfully, been indicted of divers murders, felonies, and other misbehaviour, by their covin and falsehood, to the utter undoing of their lives, loss of their goods and their lands; by reason whereof they and every of them, in avoiding the untrue trouble and vexation which to them might come and ensue by reason and occasion of the same false indictments, and also sometime by labour of the said sheriffs, divers great felonies and murders concealed, and by the said persons also by the said sheriffs and their ministers partially returned, not presented, be and have been compelled to make fines and give re⚫wards to the said sheriffs and their ministers;' &c. &c.

[No. XL. 4 Henry VIII. c. 3.-The Act concerning Juries in London.

[ No. XLI.] 5 Henry VIII. c. 5.-An Act concerning Jurors in London.

35 Henry VIII.
c. 6.
Tales de cir-
cumstantibus

atthe plaintiff's
or defendant's
request.

Challenges of the tales.

[ No. XLII.] 23 Henry VIII. c. 3.-An Act against Perjury and untrue Verdicts.

No. XLIII. ] 23 Henry VIII. c. 13.-An Act for Trial of Murders in Cities and Towns.

[Given at length, infra.]

[ No. XLIV. ] 26 Henry VIII. c. 4.-For Jurors in

Wales.

[Given at length, infra.]

[No. XLV. ] 35 Henry VIII. c. 6.-The Bill for the better Appearance in the Nisi Prius.

[ Made perpetual 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 32.]

V.AND for a more speedy trial of issues to be tried by the verdict of

twelve men, hereafter to be had,

VI. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in every such writ of habeas corpora, or distringas, with a Nisi Prius, where a full jury shall not appear before the justices of assizes or Nisi Prius, or else after appearance of a full jury, by challenge of any of the parties the jury is like to remain untaken for default of jurors, that then the same justices, upon request made by the party plaintiff or defendant, shall have authority by virtue of this Act to command the sheriff, or other minister or ministers to whom the making of the said return shall appertain, to name and appoint, as often as need shall require, so many of such other able persons of the said county then present at the said assizes or Nisi Prius, as shall make up a full jury; which persons so to be named and impanelled by such sheriff, or other minister or ministers, shall be added to the former panel, and their names annexed to the same.

VII. And that every of the parties shall and may have his or their challenge to the jurors so named, added, and annexed to the said former panel by the said sheriff or other minister or ministers, in such wise as if they had been impanelled upon the venire facias awarded to try the said issue; and that the said justices shall and may proceed to the trial of every such issue with those persons that were before impanelled and returned, and with those newly added and annexed to the said former panel by virtue of this Act, in such wise as they might or ought to have done, if all the said jurors had been returned upon the writ of venire facias awarded to try the said issue.

VIII. And that all and every such trial had after the said first day of April, shall be as good and effectual in the law, to all intents, constructions and purposes, as if such trial had been had and tried by twelve of the jurors impanelled and returned upon the writ of venire facias awarded to try such issue.

IX. And in case such persons as the said sheriff, minister or ministers, shall name and appoint, as is aforesaid, or any of them, after they shall be called, be present, and do not appear, or after his or their appearance done wilfully withdraw him or themselves from the presence of the court, that then such justices shall and may set such a fine upon every such juror making default, or wilfully withdrawing himself, as is aforesaid, as they shall think good by their discretion; the said fine to be levied in such manner and form as issues forfeited and lost by jurors for default of their appearance at the common law have been accustomed to be levied.