In 50 Edward III he was paid ten pounds for transacting certain arduous business pertaining to the king in Flanders. [Footnote: Issues, P. 273, mem. 20.] In 1 Richard II, Stucle was sent to Leycester with a letter of private seal directed to John, King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, certifying to the duke the death of the countess of March and excusing the count of March on that account from his journey to the north. [Footnote: idem 295, mem. 11.] In the same year he was sent to the north with a letter directed to John of Lancaster ordering the latter to come to London to the king's council. [Footnote: idem 295, mem. 17.] In 2 Richard II he was paid a hundred shillings for a journey to various parts of England to get money for a royal expedition. [Footnote: idem, P. 298, mem. 23.] In 1378 his grant of an annuity—here stated to be twenty pounds—was confirmed and he was retained in the king's service. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p. 181.] In 10 Richard II it is stated that Richard de la Panetrie had married his widow; evidently he had not been dead long for the king paid to his widow L37, es.8d. due to him. [Footnote: Issues, P. 315, mem. 11.]
Mention of George Felbrig first occurs in 34 Edward III when he was granted an annuity of twenty marks. [Footnote: Pat. Roll 261, mem. 2.] In 37 Edward III George Felbrigg and William Elys were granted the farm of all the customs except those of wool and wool-fells in the town of Magne Jernemuth for one year. [Footnote: idem 268, mem. 49.] They seem to have held this farm for a number of years, certainly in 40 and 41 Edward III, by yearly grants and at a rent of twenty-two pounds per annum. [Footnote: Fine Roll 167, mem, 10, 168, mem.16] In 1370 he was paid L31, 11s. 10 d. for the expenses of himself his men at arms, and archers in the war. [Footnote: Devon p. 440.] In 44 Edward III he was receiving an annuity of twenty pounds, [Footnote: Devon's Issues, p. 66.] and in the same year he had a grant at farm of the hundred of Northerpyngham, and Southerpyngham, paying fifty pounds yearly therefor. [Footnote: Fine Roll 171, mem. 26.] In 47 Edward III he was granted custody of the priory of Tostes at a farm of sixty-three pounds yearly. [Footnote: idem 174, mem. 16.] In 48 Edward III the bailiff of fees, etc., in Norfolk and Suffolk was ordered by the Duke of Lancaster to deliver the lands and tenements late belonging to Elizabeth, Dame de Aspall, to George de Felbrigge who had married Margaret, daughter of the said Elizabeth. [Footnote: Abstracts and Indexes (Long Room-Rec. Off.) I, 157 dorso.] In 49 Edward III he was granted a messuage with pertinences in Grippewic. [Footnote: Pat. Roll 293, mem. 3.] In 50 Edward III he had a grant of the "balliva" of the hundred of Rockeford in Essex, and also of the custody of Haddele Castle. [Footnote: Abb. Rot. Orig. II. 310.] In 51 Edward III he was sent on secret business of the King to John, duke of Brittany, in Flanders, and paid L13, 6s. 8d. for his wages for the journey. [Footnote: Issues, P. 274, mem. 11.]
In 1377 he is said to have been one of the jury that found Alice Perrers guilty of maintenance [Footnote: Blomefield's Norfolk VIII, 107 ff.]; certainly he witnessed against her before Parliament. [Footnote: Rot. Parl. p. 14.] In 2 Richard II he was sent on secret business of the King with John de Burle and others to Milan; for the voyage he received L23, 6s. 8d. [Footnote: Issues, P. 298, mem. 20.] In 4 Richard II he was sent to the King of the Romans and of Bohemia on secret business connected with the marriage of the King, and paid L66, 13s. 4d. for the journey. [Footnote: Issues, P. 303, mem. 2.] In 1382 he and John Herlyng acquired a messuage and sixty acres of land. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p. 121.] In 5 Richard II he was paid for a certain voyage to Germany L75, 6s. 8d. and for a voyage on king's secret business to Flanders, ten pounds. [Footnote: Issues, P. 304, mem. 19, P. 305, mem, 13.] In 1384 he was granted for life the ten pounds yearly due from him from the issues of the Castle of Colchester. In this document his services as King's messenger beyond the seas are expressly mentioned. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p. 367.] He seems to have had custody of the castle of Colchester, for when later in 1384 the King granted it to Robert de Veer, he gave instead forty pounds yearly to George Felbrigg. [Footnote: idem pp. 440, 442] In 7, 8 Richard II he was granted free warren for certain estates in Suffolk. [Footnote: Cal Rot. Chart., p. 190.] In 1385 the King granted to George Felbrig, whom the King on his entry into Scotland had advanced to the rank of Knight, forty pounds yearly to enable him to support his estate more honorably. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p. 18.] He had with him when he was in the King's expedition to Scotland eight esquires and bowmen. [Footnote: Issues, P. 312, mem. 17.]
In 11 Richard II George de Felbrugg was sent to the Duke of Gueldres at Middleburgh to receive his homage on the part of the King; for his expenses on the journey he was paid thirty pounds. [Footnote: idem, P. 316, mem. 2.] In 1389-92 he was mentioned frequently in the Patent Rolls as justice of the Peace in Suffolk. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll index.] In 14 Richard II he was paid forty pounds for a journey to the King of the Romans, and in 15 Richard II a hundred pounds for the same journey. [Footnote: Issues, P. 323, mem. 5, P. 324, mem. 5] In 1399 nine grants made by Richard II to him, were confirmed by Henry IV. [Footnote: Cal. Pat. Roll, p. 77.] In 1401 a George Felbrig married Anne, late the wife of Robert Charles, Knight. [Footnote: idem, p. 539.]
Blomefield gives the following additional information about Felbrig. In 7 Richard II he and Margery his wife held the manors of Wortham and Ingham in Suffolk. About the same time Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, granted to him and Roger Mareschall, esquire, the manor and park of Standon in Hertfordshire, at farm. He was one of the King's protectors in the latter's tenth year, and in 15 Richard II, he was one of the Lieutenants in the court of chivalry to try the case of Lords Morley and Lovell. His will was dated 3 February 1400. [Footnote: Blomefield, VIII, pp. 107 ff.] The office of Justice of the Peace developed in England in the fourteenth century. The main outlines of its growth can be indicated by the statement of a few significant facts. In 1327 it was enacted that "good and lawful men" be assigned to keep the peace. In 1330 they were given power to return indictments. In 1360 one lord and with him three or four of the most worthy of the county, with some learned in the law, were given power to arrest malefactors, to receive indictments against them, and to hear and determine at the King's suit all manner of felonies and trespasses done in the county. In 1362 it was directed by statute that the justices should hold sessions four times a year, and, in 1388, that they should be paid four shillings a day during the sessions. [Footnote: Summarized from Maitland's Constitutional History and G. E. Howard. Neb. U. Studies, pp. 44, 53.] In 13* Richard II it was enacted that the justices should be "the most efficient Knights, esquires and gentlemen of the law" of the county. [Footnote: Though enacted after Chaucer's time as justice, this indicates very nearly a contemporary attitude toward the office.]
The justices of a given county were derived from three classes.
[Footnote: Encyclopaedia of Laws of England, vol. 7, p. 587.]
(a) those appointed by being named in the schedule. (The Lord Chancellor made the appointment, usually relying upon the Lord Lieutenant, or the custos rotulorum, of the county.)
(b) virtute officii—i.e. the Lord Chancellor, Lord President of the Privy Council, Lord Privy Seal, Justices of the Supreme Court, etc.
(c) holders of minor judicial offices, county judges, etc.
Of those named in the list of Justices of the Peace for Kent in 1386 at least four fall under class (b); Robert Tresilian, Robert Bealknap, David Hannemere, and Walter Clopton were at that time Justices in the King's courts and their names occur (evidently ex officio) in the lists of justices for many of the counties of England. Since they very likely never sat with the Justices of the Peace in Kent, they may, for our purposes, be disregarded.