| 4
Advice. |
Justices of the Peace.
And now, for that these petty Constables be much
absent from their
Houses or homes, partly by reason of their imployments in their Office,
and
partly by reason of their own private occasions, (especially in our
and other
like parts of the Land, where these Officers are for the most part
Husbandmen,
and so most of the day of in the fields;) it would prove very serviceable,
if, by a Law to be made in Parliament, every Town and Village were
to
have a Tithing-man, or such other Officer, (or the like) to attend
the service
of the Constable, in his absence at the least, for that for want of
such
assistance, Rogues, Vagabonds and the like, knowing their times now
travel
up and down far more boldly. |
Chap. 1. |
|
' And yet Mr. Crompton. fol. 222. faith,
That a Constable may make a
' Deputy to execute his Office in his absence, for that he may be sick,
&c.
' But it hath been resolved, That he may make a Deputy, because it
is but
' a Ministerial Office. Mich. 13 Jac. B. R. Phillips
and
Winscome's Case. But
' some have held, That the making a Deputy is rather by Toleration,
' than by Law. Resol. 29. |
Moors Rep.
P. 845. |
|
If any man shall make an Affray or Assault upon
another in presence of
the Constable or Borsholder, or if any other man in the presence of the
Constable
shall threaten to kill, beat or hurt another, or shall be in a fury ready
to
break the Peace; in every of these cases the Constable or Borsholder may
commit the Offenders to the Stocks, or to some other safe custody for the
present, (as his or their quality requireth) and after may carry them before
some Justice of Peace, or to the Gaol) until they shall find Surety for
the
Peace; which Surety the Constable himself may also take by Obligation,
to be sealed and delived to the King's use: and if the party will
not find
such Surety to the Constable, he may imprison the party until he shall
do
it. 3 H. 4, 9, 10. |
3 H. 44.8.
9 F. 12.
Ilic cap 8. |
|
I have seen the Report of Skarret's Case, Termino
Trin. An. 35 Eliz. Rot.
1458. where Skarret brought his Action of False Imprisonment against
one
Hammer, for arresting the Plaintiff and imprisoning him, &c.
The Defendant,
to the Imprisonment, pleaded, That he was High Constable of the
Hundred of E. in the County of S. and that the Plaintiff
made an Affray
within the said Hundred upon one H. W. who presently came to him
and
told him thereof, and swore upon a Book that he was in fear of his
life by
the other; whereupon the Defendant came to the Plaintiff, and arrested
and Imprisoned him, until he had found sufficient Sureties for the Peace;
upon which the Plaintiff demurred. And it was adjudged, That the
Plea
of the Defendant was insufficient; first, for that he was not present at
the
Assault and Affray; secondly, for that he was the High Constable of the
Hundred, and not Constable of the Town. In the Argument of which
Case
Anderson, Chief Justice, held Constables to be Conservators of the
Peace at
the Common Law, and still so to be, and that they ought to preserve the
Peace as much as in them lieth; but that (said he) was by parting of men
which he should see breaking of the Peace, and to carry them before a Justice
of Peace, to find Sureties for the keeping thereof; but to take Sureties
himself,
the Constable cannot. And those which hold, that he may take Surety
cannot tell what Surety that should be: for he cannot take a Recognizance
nor Bail, for he is no Officer of Record; and if he shall take an Obligation,
how the same shall be certified, and into what Court he said he knew
not; and that it should be very inconvenient to give such Authority to
every Constable. But by three other Judges, namely, Walmsley,
Owen, and
Beamond. Although a Constable cannot take Surety for the Peace
by Recognizance
nor Bail, yet he may take an Obligation, according to the Book of
10 E. 4. And if the Affray be in their presence, they are
Conservators of |
10 E. 3.18.
|
|
 |
