SPECIMENS OF JUDICIAL PLEADINGS

The limitations of this section have been explained in the Preface and it is only necessary to mention the provenance and significance of the three documents printed below. Of these the first two are derived from the same source, the Chancery ‘Placita’ which have preserved many interesting relics of judicial procedure in connexion with cases certified into the Chancery by writs of Certiorari. Under these circumstances it seems to have been the rule for a sequence of ‘original’ and ‘judicial’ writs filed in the case, with the official returns and precepts endorsed thereon, to be annexed to the transcript of the Record from the ‘Roll of the term and year,’ and it has been suggested that the Record itself may have been compiled from these memoranda during the earlier mediaeval period. In any case this aspect of the subject is of considerable interest. The several stages of procedure during the ‘Issue term’ and ‘Trial Term’ can be easily distinguished.

In the case of Head v. Butler (No. 1) the action for trespass and assault is originated, not by a Chancery Writ, but by a ‘Bill of Middlesex,’ a form of privileged procedure. In the writ process and official minutes noticed above, the substance of the Pleadings after the Appearance of the parties, and the Medial Judgment upon the Issue joined (iii and xi) can be clearly distinguished; but the proceedings are considerably amplified by the verba Curie introduced in the Record of the Term and Year (xii) and even during the Trial Term the attention of the Court seems to have been chiefly occupied with the necessary formalities for securing the attendance of the Jury and the appearance of the parties (iv—x).

Administrative or Remedial Insquisitions

56. The Inquest of Sheriffs (1170).—The interest of this measure for the present purpose lies, first, in the appearance at a very early date of certain Articles relating to ministerial misgovernment, which are reproduced in the Chapters of the Eyre and the Hundred Roll group of inquisitions, and, secondly, in the apparent survival of some fragments of the Inquisition itself. It will be observed that the first four Articles refer to separate Chapters of inquiry, a distinction which is emphasized in the last Article (13). Other Articles (6, 11, 12) relate exclusively to Crown business including the certification of homage (cf. Nos. 22 and 40) and even the state of the stock in the royal domains.

The original Returns above referred to, which contain the Inquisition taken in several Norfolk baronies ‘per terras baronum,’ appear to relate chiefly to the Inquisition under Article 2, though incidentally information is received regarding another Article (6) concerning the Marriage Aid of 1168. It is noticeable, however, that the Articles as preserved make no reference to Scutage which is the chief subject of these fragments.

This inquisition should be carefully compared with the ‘fiscal’ articles of the Assize of Northampton (1176).

57. The Hundred Rolls.—The origin and relationship of these familiar inquisitions have not perhaps been clearly understood by many students who have made use of the abundant constitutional and economic information supplied by the Exchequer and Chancery Records which are grouped under this title. Full particulars of the existing Inquisitions will be found in Mr Scargill-Bird's Guide.

The conventional Account naturally differs in its general aspect from other Records, although in certain cases it may assume the shape of a narrative document or may be incorporated in a Record or State Paper (No. 54g). Again the Account itself may be described under a title derived from the subject-matter with which it deals, and thus we speak familiarly of ‘Subsidies’ and ‘Assessments,’ of a Taxatio and a Valor (Nos. 28–33). So too, special titles are applied to presentments of Account, such as ‘States’ and ‘Views’ (Nos. 53 f 55 (ii) c, 55 (iii)), ‘Imprests,’ ‘Estreats,’ ‘Assignments’ and the like.

It should be noticed also that, although the construction of the conventional Account is apparently uniform, the theoretical composition of certain forms, such as the Pipe Rolls, frequently differs from the actual practice observed in individual cases. The normal Account should, however, consist of the following parts or clauses:

1. The Heading or Title, containing the name of the accountant and the date and place or subject-matter of the Account.

2. The Charge (a statement of the Arrears, Receipts, or Imprests, which are to be accounted for, with their ‘sum’).

3. The Discharge (a corresponding statement of the Paying in, or Re-payment, or of the authorized Disbursements and Expenses made or incurred by the Accountant, with their ‘sum’).

4. The Balance (ascertained by subtracting the ‘sum’ of the Allowances from the ‘sum’ of the Charge) proving the Accountant to be quit or indebted or possessed of a surplus as the case may be.

The documents included in this section have been selected from several classes of Records with the sole object of illustrating the various types of judicial procedure in the form of Inquisitions as opposed to actual Pleadings. Even so, the selection is necessarily an arbitrary one, and special attention has naturally been given to the constitutional aspect of the subject. Perhaps the most important documents in this series are those connected with the Eyre, for judicial or fiscal business (Nos. 69—71). Of these the Old and New Chapters of the Eyre (No. 70 c and d) are derived from a manuscript source that is possibly unique, and it will be noticed that the sequence of documents given here includes, besides the abbreviated Chapters, extracts from the actual Presentments made before the justices. To these have been prefixed specimens of the instruments by which the Eyre was instituted and proclaimed (No. 70 a and b). It will be noticed that the conventional form of the ‘Old Chapters of the Eyre’ which may be found between 1194 and 1254 undergoes considerable change during the second half of the 13th century, and the connexion between this innovation and the Political Inquisitions of that period, beginning with the Hundred Rolls of 1255, has been referred to elsewhere. A comparison on the one hand of the conventional ‘Chapters of the Eyre,’ with the ‘Chapters’ printed below and, on the other hand, with the Articles of certain of the Political Inquisitions referred to (Nos. 56, 57, 58, 60) will be found instructive.

THE objects and plan of this work, together with the methods of investigation pursued by the transcribers and Editor, have been sufficiently explained in the Preface to Part I, and the nature of the documents selected for the purpose of the present volume is briefly stated in the introductions to the several sections. It is only necessary therefore to make a few general observations here on either subject.

In the first place, it should be remembered that the ministerial and judicial Records which now occupy our attention instead of Charters, Writs and Letters, have not usually been considered worthy of a “diplomatic” examination. When, however, such an examination is applied, even in the slight degree that has been attempted here, the familiar Record assumes in many cases a very different character from that in which it has hitherto been regarded by the historical student. But it was not enough to have merely indicated a method of investigation. Some attempt to carry it out on a connected plan had to be made, although the undertaking was known to be beset with many difficulties. The unrecognized character of this branch of diplomatic study must furnish some excuse for the obvious artificiality of the design of this compilation. Its limitations also are considerable owing to the fact that the evolution of judicial procedure is a subject that still occupies the anxious attention of legal scholars and scarcely permits of trivial discussion for the information of lay students, especially as numerous formulas are given in classical editions as well as in recent histories of English Law.