The justices of the peace performed some of their duties separately, acting individually as circumstances required, or as proved convenient to themselves. Other powers they could exercise only when two or more acted together and concurrently. Still others, and those far the most important and dignified, they performed in a body at their "quarter- sessions." What things a justice might do singly, what two, three, or four justices might do together, and what they might do only in the formal sessions of the whole body of justices of the peace of the county were defined partly in the statutes, partly in the commission under which they acted.
The regular or quarter-sessions were meetings held four times a year— in October, midwinter, spring, and midsummer—at which all the justices of the peace of the county were supposed to be present. There were, besides, occasional irregular sessions, or meetings of the regular sessions adjourned from one time to another. In corporate towns the city officers acted as justices of the peace, reinforced usually by some others especially appointed; and each town followed its own customs as to meeting in general sessions.
Although the law contemplated the attendance of all the justices of the county at each quarter-sessions, as a matter of fact the attendance was very irregular and incomplete, few of the records, so far as published, showing an attendance of as many as a dozen out of perhaps forty or fifty. Most of them evidently came riding up to quarter-sessions if it suited their convenience and remained away if it did not, restricting their services to those duties which could be performed in their own neighborhoods, and leaving to a few active, regular, and hardworking magistrates the responsibilities of the higher work. [Footnote: West Riding Sessions Rolls; Manchester Quarter-Sessions, passim.]
Of those who made up quarter-sessions one at least must be "of the quorum." This expression is taken from the commission of the justices of the peace, which in the clause giving to the justices the power to inquire and determine by oath of the jurors as to felonies and other offences and to punish them, after naming all those to whom the commission for that county is issued, says, quorum aliquem vestrum, A, B, C, etc., unum esse volumus (of whom we wish you, A, B, C, etc., to be one), naming presumably such as were learned in the law or otherwise especially trustworthy. [Footnote: Lambarde, Eirenarcha, book I., chap. ix.] As without the presence of one of the "quorum" no quarter-sessions could be held, to be a "justice of the peace and of the quorum" was to be one of a select list of the justices. One-third or one-half of the list of those in the commission were usually named also in the quorum. In addition to the justices there should, according to law, be present at quarter-sessions, in the first place, the custos rotulorum, or keeper of the rolls of the sessions, the "custalorum" of Justice Shallow. [Footnote: Merry Wives of Windsor, act i., sc. i.] This was always one of the justices of high rank indicated to the lord- chancellor for appointment by the king himself, [Footnote: 37 Henry VIII., chap i.] and was very apt to be the lord-lieutenant of the county. He could be, and probably was, usually represented at the sessions by a deputy, who was a person of considerable importance and influence, upon whom much responsibility was placed by the statutes, and whose abilities must have been constantly relied upon by the magistrates. The title of this deputy was "clerk of the peace," the predecessor apparently of the American county clerk. He was usually familiar with the law, and his knowledge of precedents and procedure must often have stood the unlearned justices in good stead, besides the work which he performed in drawing up indictments, writing orders, and keeping records.
Besides the custos and the clerk, the sheriff or his deputy were bound to be present prepared to empanel jurors and execute process; as well as the jailer ready to produce his prisoners; the superintendent of the county house of correction; all jurors who had been summoned by the sheriff; all persons who had been bound over by single justices to appear at quarter-sessions; all high constables and bailiffs of hundreds; and the coroners. [Footnote: Dalton, Officium Vicecomitum, chaps, xxxiv., clxxxv.] The quarter-sessions should, by law, be kept for three continuous days if there was any need; [Footnote: 12 Richard II, chap. x.] but, as a matter of fact, sessions seldom lasted more than a day, and a contemporary complains that "many doe scantly afford them three whole hours, besides the time which is spent in calling of the county and giving of the charge." [Footnote: Lambarde, Eirenarcha, book IV., chap. xix.]
The powers and duties of the justices of the peace in quarter-sessions and separately were so considerable and varied as to tax the ability of an Elizabethan or Jacobean text-book writer to reduce them to simplicity of statement, or to the compass of five or six hundred pages of enumeration. Many of these powers were general, arising from the nature of the office for the "conservation of the peace"; but the great mass of their duties was placed upon them by statutes. Ten early statutes are enumerated in the commission itself, before coming to the inclusive "and cause to be kept all other ordinances and statutes made for the good of our peace and the quiet rule and government of our people." From the middle of the fifteenth century forward, the enforcement of the greater number of new laws was placed primarily in the hands of the justices of the peace.
As time passed on legislation became more and more minute and inclusive. Few interests in human life escaped the paternal attention of government under the Tudors and Stuarts, and this great mass of enactment it became the duty of the groups of country gentry in the counties and of the civic magistrates of the towns to put into force. A writer of the time enumerates two hundred and ninety-three statutes passed previous to 1603 in which justices of the peace are mentioned and given some jurisdiction or duties. [Footnote: Lambarde, Eirenarcha, book IV., chap, xix., Table, App.] Under Elizabeth alone there were seventy-eight, ranging from the "preservation of spawn and frie of fish" to those "touching bulls from Rome." The infrequent and short- lived parliaments of James I. added thirty-six to the list. [Footnote: Dalton, The Country Justice, Table of Contents.]
Although many of these laws are repetitions, some others temporary or local, still others insignificant, yet, on the other hand, some of them opened up whole new fields of activity to the justices: as, for instance, those placing upon them, after 1563, the administration of the Act of Apprentice; and, after 1581, the responsibility for the search for and punishment of popish recusants. A whole code of law, procedure, and precedent grew up on these two subjects, besides others scarcely less extensive.
Quarter-sessions had nothing to do with civil suits, and cases of treason, murder, and certain other high crimes were excluded from their competence. Apart from this restriction and these offences, there was little difference between sessions and assizes, between the jurisdiction of the learned judges of the king in their half-yearly circuit and that of the county magistrates in their quarter-sessions. Before them both grand and petty juries were empanelled, indictments drawn up, prisoners tried for assault, burglary, horse-stealing, witchcraft, pocket-picking, keeping up nuisances, cheating, failure to attend church, and almost all other offences of which seventeenth- century Englishmen were capable. If convicted they were placed in the stocks, whipped, or hanged. In Devonshire, in the midwinter sessions of 1598, out of sixty-five culprits who were tried eight were hanged; at midsummer, out of forty-five eight were hanged, thirteen flogged, seven acquitted, and seven, on account of their claim of benefit of clergy, were branded and then released. [Footnote: Hamilton, Devonshire Quarter-Sessions, 33.]
The justices in sessions or singly also performed much administrative work, such as the oversight and repair of bridges, the granting of licenses to ale-houses, the establishment of wages, the binding out of apprentices, and the relief of wounded soldiers. Many laws passed under Elizabeth and James I. admitted of exceptions when approved by one or more justices of the peace, and there was thus constant occasion for granting to individual persons or at special times permission to export grain, to turn their barley into malt, to build cottages without land attached, to carry hand-guns, to buy and sell out of market-hours, to beg, and other dispensations from the rigorous application of the law. [Footnote: Ibid., 27, 164, etc.]