6
§. 1.
See this
Oath at
large, Brac.
lib. 3, and
Dr. Cowel,
235. |
Justices of the Peace.
CHAP. II.
The first Ordaining of Justices of the Peace.
KING Edward the First (according to the first
Article of the Sacred
Oath received by him, and since by other Kings and Queens of this
Realm at their several Coronations, the which is in these words, Servabis
Ecclesiæ Dei, Clero & Populo, Pacem ex Integro & Concordiam
in Deo secundum
vires tuas. Quibus Rex respondet, Servabo) in his first Parliament
holden An. 3. of his Reign, Cap. 1. hath established and
commanded, that the
Peace of holy Church and of the Land shall be well kept and maintained
in all points: The which Peace of the Church is (and always hath
been
by the ancient Laws of this Land) protected and conserved by the King,
the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm; and the Peace of the Land is
and always hath been, defended and maintained by the same King, and his
temporal Justices or Officers lawfully appointed for the same, &c.
which
temporal Justices, at the first, were the Conservators of the Peace, as
aforesaid.
But more especially in those times, there were also in every County
continually Justices of Oyer and Terminer, and also there
were Justices
Itinerants, which had Power not only to determine all manner of Quarrels,
(as well Real as Personal) but also all Offences against the Peace, &c.
as
may appear in our Law Books, and especially in M. Fitz. tit. Corone,
amongst the Iter' North' & Canc'. |
Chap. 2. |
| §. 2.
Their beginning. |
For although by Chronicle Law, in our Annals, it
is reported that William
the Conqueror ordained Justices of the Peace about an. Dom. 1070.
Anno quarto of his Reign; yet Justices of Peace had not their being
almost
Three hundred years after, viz. until An. Dom. 1327.
At which time Justices
or Commissioners of the Peace were first created and ordained by the
Stat. 1. Ed. 3. cap. 16. By which Statute it was ordained,
That in every Shire
of the Realm certain persons should be assigned (sc. by the
King's commission)
to keep the Peace. And their Authority was after enlarged by
the Statutes 4 Ed. 3. cap. 2. 18 Ed. 3. cap.
1. ' And by
many other Statutes made since in every King's Reign: And by the
said
Statute of 34 E. 3.1. were they first (generally) enabled to hear
and determine
(at the King's Suit) all manner of Felonies and Trespasses: And
each County had now its proper Commissioners for the Peace, whereas
before (it seemeth) the Commissions to the Justices of the Peace were not
always made severally into one Shire, but sometime joyntly to sundry persons
over sundry Shires. |
Holinsh. 1. |
| |
' And by the Stat. 2 H. 5. cap.
1. Stat. 2. Justices of Peace shall be made
' of the most sufficient persons dwelling in the same Counties, by the
advice
' of the Chancellor and King's Council. |
|
| §. 3.
Their
Name. |
But the Statute of 36 E. 3. cap.
12. is the first Statute that nameth them
Justices of the Peace. For the Statutes of 2 E.
cap. 6. and 25 Ed. 3.
cap. 6, 7, 8, speaking of Justices seem not to be of our Justices
of Peace;
but that of 2 Ed. 3. as also the Statute of Winchester, cap.
1. therein mentioned,
to be meant of Justices Itinerants, or Justices in Eyre; and the
other of 25 Ed. 3. to be meant of Justices or Commissioners specially
assigned for Servants and Labourers. See for this last, Lamb.
24 & 577, 578.
and the Statutes of Labourers made 25 E. 3. cap. 6,
7, 8, and of 42 Ed. 3.
cap. 6, Rastal, fol 233.a.b.d. |
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They be called Justices [of the Peace] because they
be Judges of Record,
and withal to put them in mind (by their name) that they are to do
Justice (which is, to yield to every Man his own by even portions, and
according |
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