In 1585 it was enacted, "That in all cases where any jurors to be returned for trial of any issue or issues joined in any of the Queen's majesty's courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and the Exchequer, or before judices of assize, by the laws of this realm now in force, ought to have estate of freehold in lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of forty shillings, that in every such case the jurors that shall be returned from and after the end of this present session of parliament, shall every of them have estate of freehold in lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to the clear yearly value of four pounds at the least." 27 Elizabeth, ch. 6. (1585.)
In 1664-5 it was enacted "That all jurors (other than strangers upon trials per medietatem linquae) who are to be returned for the trials of issues joined in any of (his) majesty's courts of king's bench, common pleas, or the exchequer, or before justices of assize, nisi prius, oyer and terminer, gaol delivery, or general or quarter sessions of the peace from and after the twentieth day of April, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and sixty-five, in any county of this realm of England, shall every of them then have, in their own name, or in trust for them, within the same county, twenty pounds, by the year, at least, above reprises, in their own or their wives right, of freehold lands, or of ancient demesne, or of rents in fee, fee-tail, or for life. And that in every county within the dominion of Wales every such juror shall then have, within the some, eight pounds by the year, at the least, above reprises, in manner aforesaid. All which persons having such estate as aforesaid are hereby enabled and made liable to be returned and serve as jurors for the trial of issues before the justices aforesaid, any law or statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding," 16 and 17 Charles II., ch. 5. (1664-5,)
By a statute passed in 1692, jurors in England are to have landed estates of the value of ten pounds a year, and jurors in Wales to have similar estates of the realm of six pounds a year. 4 and 5 William and Mary, ch. 24, sec. 14, (1692,)
By the same statute, (sec. 18,) persons may be returned to serve upon the tales in any county of England, who shall have within the same county, five pounds by the year, above reprises, in the manner aforesaid.
By St. 3 George II., ch. 25, sec. 10, 20, no one is to be a juror in London, who shall not be "an householder within the said city, and have lands, tenements, or personal estate, to the value of one hundred pounds."
By another statute, applicable only to the county of Middlesex, it is enacted, "That all leaseholders, upon leases where the improved rents or value shall amount to fifty pounds or upwards per annum, over and above all ground rents or other reservations payable by virtue of the said leases, shall be liable and obliged to serve upon juries when they shall be legally summoned for that purpose.," 4 George II., ch. 7, sec, 3. (1731.)
[5] A mark was thirteen shillings and four pence.
[6] Suppose these statutes, instead of disfranchising all whose freeholds were of less than the standard value fixed by the statutes, had disfranchised all whose freeholds were of greater value than the same standard would anybody ever have doubted that such legislation was inconsistent with the English constitution; or that it amounted to an entire abolition of the trial by jury? Certainly not. Yet it was as clearly inconsistent with the common law, or the English constitution, to disfranchise those whose freeholds fell below any arbitrary standard fixed by the government, as it would have been to disfranchise all whose freeholds rose above that standard.
[7] Lingard says: "These compurgators or jurors * * were sometimes * * drawn by lot." 1 Lingard's History of England, p. 300.
[8] Chapter 4, p. 120, note.