and Ireland King defender of y' faith &ct and y* Good and wholsome laws of this province.'

(f)-Officers of the County Court.

The officers of the county court were the marshal, superseded after 1791 by the sheriff, and the clerk, called in the later period clerk of the sessions or of the peace. The latter, in addition to his duties as keeper of the judicial records, was ex officio recorder of the county, thus discharging the functions of the modern county clerk. The marshal performed the usual executive functions of sheriff: making arrests, collecting fines, and serving executions. But in the first days of the colony all this business was transacted by the "general marshall," or as he was originally styled, the "beadle" of the entire jurisdiction.2

1Records of the General Sessions, 85. Cf. Ib., 79, 65, 36, etc., etc. For the value of the court records of Essex County relative to the trials of Quakers, 1656-77, see Hallowell, The Quaker invasion of Massachusetts, 126 f.; also Clever, The Prosecution of Philip English and his Wife for Witchcraft in Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., II, 21 ff., 73 ff., 133 ff, 185 ff., 237 ff.; also other trials for witchcraft in Ib., II, 49 ff.; VIII, 17 ff. Interesting details are given in Mr. Kimball's Gleanings from Files of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace: Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., XI, Parts I-III. Some contemporary references to the judicial system of Massachusetts may be found in the following: Johnson, Wonder-Working Providence, in 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., IV, 22; Hubbard, Hist. of New England, in 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., V, 156, 234-5; VI, 551; Lechford, Plaine Dealing, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., III, 83-86; Shepard, The Cleare Suns-Shine of the Gospel, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., IV, 48-9 (Indian Courts); Josselyn's Account, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., III, 325; Mem. Hist. Bost., I, 234; Savage, Gleanings, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., VIII, 333.

Among more recent writings, see Washburn, Judicial Hist. of Mass.; and brief notices in Lodge, Short Hist., 415-17; Channing, Town and County Govt., 34-5; Palfrey, Hist. of New England, I, 334, 256; II, 16; IV, 129; Hildreth, I, 233; II, 170.

2 The beadle is mentioned in Mass. Col. Rec., I, 74, 40, 100. "Marshall" seems to have been substituted in 1634: Ib., 128. On the county marshal see Пb., IV, Part I, 18, 183, 184; IV, Part II, 59, 350; III, 340-1, etc. By

Originally both marshal and clerk seem to have been appointed by the court; and, after 1691, the latter continued to be so chosen.1 But by the charter the nomination of sheriff was vested in the governor.2 While the town remained the unit of representation in the assembly, under the Province laws the county gained one function which raised it more nearly to a level with the contemporary English model: the sheriff was required to issue his precept to the selectmen of the various towns to assemble the freemen for the choice of deputies; and the names of those elected were then to be certified by the selectmen to the sheriff, who made return to the secretary of the province.3

III. THE SHIRE AS A FISCAL UNIT.

(a).-The County Rate.

Throughout New England the towns have always been self-taxing bodies for the support of local government. But besides the town rate there were two other levies in each of which the shire was directly concerned: these were the "county" and "country" rates.

The

The chief items of county expenditure were the fees and salaries of officers, the construction and repair of bridges and highways, the support of houses of correction, and the maintenance of courts, including the fees of grand jurors. standing sources of revenue consisted of fines and costs of prosecutions. When these did not suffice the county court was empowered to supplement them by a tax levied upon the

5

the second charter the governor was authorized to appoint both sheriffs and provost-marshals: Acts and Resolves, I, 12, 89, 402, 555.

towns in the same proportion as the last public rate. This was then collected and turned over to the county treasurer by the constables.' The levy of the county rate was thus wholly under control of the court.

The fiscal officer of the county was the treasurer chosen by popular vote. The office was created in 1654, eleven years after the creation of shires. It was ordered that annually on the last Tuesday of June' the freemen of the county in their various towns should vote for treasurer by "sealed proxies," those of each town being carried to the shire town by a delegate, known as the "shire commissioner," elected for that purpose. The proxies were then to be opened by the assembled commissioners in the presence of a magistrate, and the person receiving the most was to be declared duly elected.3

By the very important act, just cited, the mutual relations of clerk and treasurer are defined and regulations for the administration of their respective offices prescribed. The clerk is directed to keep a record of all dues and expenditures, the magistrates being required to forward to him transcripts of all fines levied by them and under their warrants paid into the county treasury by the marshal or constables. A like transcript of dues and fines is to be delivered by the clerk to the treasurer; and the latter is required to render an annual account to the county court, which, if a deficit appear, is then to levy a county rate.5

This whole procedure, which bears a striking resemblance to that still observed in modern county administration, remained substantially the same throughout the whole colonial era. The treasurer was still voted for in the towns; but the constables,

1 Mass. Col. Rec., IV, Part I, 185; Acts and Resolves, I, 63–4.

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2 Subsequently the day of election was made to correspond with that for

choice of magistrates: Mass. Col. Rec., IV, Part I, 259.

3 Mass. Col. Rec., IV, Part I, 185; Proceedings of the Deputies, Ib., III, 398–9. For the procedure under the province laws, see Acts and Resolves, I, 64. 5 Mass. Col. Rec., IV, Part I, 184–6.

Acts and Resolves, I, 63-4, etc.

in place of the shire commissioners, made return before the general sessions.1

(b).-The Country Rate.

The history of the "country rate "2 and of the shire's functions with respect to it, is extremely interesting. Throughout New England the town was the unit for the assessment and collection of the public revenue. The earliest taxes in Massachusetts were levied upon the various communities in stated sums; the quota of each being then assessed by the proper officer and collected by the constable. A poll-tax was not allowed. But in November, 1646, appeared an important statute by which was outlined the broad features of the system of taxation maintained throughout the entire colonial period. The principle adopted was peculiar, combining the three-fold elements of polls, property, and income. Every male of sixteen years and upward, "whether servant or other," was required to pay an annual poll-tax of 20d.; all owners of estates, whether lands or goods, were to contribute one penny for every 20s. valuation; every laborer, artificer, or handicraftsman who usually receives 18d. a day in summer, or, if he "worke by greate," an average of more than that amount, must pay annually 3s., 4d., in addition to his poll-tax; and all others-butchers, bakers, cooks, victuallers, and the like-shall contribute "according to their returnes

1 Acts and Resolves, I, 63.

2

For a definition of the public or country rate see Mass. Col. Rec., I, 277; II, 260, 171.

3 Mass. Col. Rec., I, 77, 93 (Feb. 1632). Once at least, money was raised by private subscription for erection of a "moveing ffort:" Mass. Col. Rec., I, 113.

*Mass. Col. Rec., I, 160, 179, 240, 260.

An order of May, 1634, runs: "In all rates & publique charges the townes shall haue respect to levy euy man according to his estate, & with consideracon of all other his abilityes, whatsoeuer, & not according to the number of his p'sons:" Mass. Col. Rec., I, 120.

and incommings." Children and servants receiving no wages are to be paid for by their parents or masters; while the poor, sick, or infirm are entirely exempt, as also magistrates for 500£ estate.1

Thus was the "country rate" established; and thereafter it was customary for the general court to order the levy in multiples or fractions of a "single" rate."

(c).-Equalization of Assessments.

The act under consideration provided also for equal assessment of the tax throughout the shire. Each town was required to elect one of its inhabitants, known thereafter as the "town commissioner," to join with the selectmen in assessing incomes and estates and in making the list of males subject to the polltax. On the second Wednesday of the month following the assessment, all the commissioners of the county were to meet in the shire town to act as a board of equalization. This arrangement is of special interest as constituting an early precedent for the action of the board of supervisors under the modern county-township system of the northwestern states.

In the following year the act was repealed; but essentially the same plan was incorporated in a new order, the only

1Mass. Col. Rec., II, 173-4.

2 See many examples in the Mass. Col. Rec., of 1, 1, or 3, 7, or 9 single rates, etc. In the Plymouth jurisdiction public taxes were levied according to "visable estate and faculties," not upon polls or incomes: Plymouth Col. Rec., XI, 142, 211, 241. See examples of rates in Ib., II, 18, 47, 64, etc. However in the early period the rate was levied by the general court in stated sums, the separate amount due from each taxable person in the colony being named in the order: see lists in Plym. Col. Rec., I, 9-11, 27-29. In the New Haven and Hartford jurisdictions practically the same system existed as in Massachusetts: New Haven Col. Rec., I, 25, 494; Trumbull, Blue Laws, 119; Conn. Col. Rec., I, 548-551; II, 48–9.

3 Mass. Col. Rec., II, 212-15.