[413] Ballivum. It is the opinion of Sir Henry Spelman, that we received the term from the Normans. There is, indeed, frequent mention of such an officer in the Grand Custumary. (c. 4. &c.) But Lord Coke thinks, we received it from the Saxons. It occurs in a law of Edward the Confessor, if it be not an interpolation of a later age. (Ed. Conf. LL. c. 35.) It has been received in a variety of significations—As meaning a Judge, an Officer of the Crown, a Bailiff of a hundred, of a Liberty, and of a Borough, of a Manor and of an Estate. (Spelm. Gloss. ad voc.) Cowell, who deduces the word from the French, thinks our Sheriffs were formerly called Bailiffs, as their Counties are termed Bailiwicks. (Cowell ad voc.) See Fleta L. 2.
[414] Seneschallum—“Is,” says Cowell, “a French word, but borrowed from Germany, being, as Tilius saith, compounded of Schal, i.e. servus aut officialis, and gesnid, i.e. familia. We English it Steward.” (Cowell’s Interp. ad voc. Seneshall. See also Madox’s Excheq. c. 3. s. 6.) “It is derived,” says Lord Coke, “of Sein a house or place and schalc an officer or governor, &c.” (Vide Co. Litt. 61. a. for other derivations.) See Fleta L. 2.
[415] Yet, from the form of the writ which our Author gives us, L. 13. c. 13. it seems perfectly clear, that a Bailiff was allowed to hear a Recognition for his principal. The reason of the distinction, perhaps, might be found in the different nature of the functions—to perform the duty of an Attorney being an active, that of merely hearing a Recognition, of a passive nature—the one, requiring skill—the other, not.
[416] Here is another instance of confusion, arising from the inaccurate manner in which these letters are inserted!
[417] “The Essoin of the Procurator only shall have place, until the procuratory be revoked.” (Reg. Maj. L. 3. c. 16.) Mr. Reeves appears to have viewed the passage of the Text in a different light. (Vide Hist. Eng. Law. 1. 170.)
[418] Vide Mirror, c. 5. s. 5.—Ante 97. Not. 3. and M. Houard’s Traités sur les Coutumes Anglo-Norm. Tom. 1. 451. where he adopts the same reading, as I contend for, and observes that under the ancient Norman Custumary the wife could not reclaim her Dower.
[419] L. 1. c. 12.
[420] I have retained the original word, not merely because I know of no word answering to the complex idea of Skene, but that it is very questionable, whether Skene be correct. He thus interprets the word—“If they dwell in cells, separate from abbies or monasteries.” (Reg. Maj. L. 3. c. 18.) From other authorities, I should rather have inferred, that the cellarii were a species of monks, invested with the power of providing for their Brethren, and regulating the internal part of their monasteries. But this again is with difficulty to be reconciled to the terms, in which one of them is spoken of—secundus pater in monasterio, unless we concur with Spelman, who says, when speaking of the word, crevisse videtur in amplitudinem. (Vide Spelman. Gloss, ad voc.)
[421] The Regiam Majestatem, on the contrary, asserts, that they shall be received, without the Letter of their Abbot or Grand Prior. (L. 3. c. 18.)
[422] Of these Orders the Reader will find some mention in 2 Inst. 431.