CHAP. V.
“The King to R., Health. I command you, that justly and without delay, you cause N. and A. his Wife to have their reasonable part which belongs to them of one Messuage, in such a Vill, which they claim to belong to their free Tenement, that they hold of our Lord the King, in such a Vill, by the free service of two shillings by the year; or of one Mark Rent, in such a Vill, which they claim of the free Marriage-hood of the said A., of which they complain that B., the sister of A., has deforced them, or that G. has deforced them. And, unless you do so, the Sheriff shall do it, least any further complaint should be made for want of Justice. Witness, &c.”
CHAP. VI.
These Suits are in the habit of being conducted in the Courts of Lords, or of those who fill their places, according to the reasonable Customs prevailing in their Courts; which are so numerous and various, that it is scarcely possible to reduce them into writing.[427]
CHAP. VII.
These Courts are proved to have failed in doing Justice in this manner. Upon the Demandant’s complaining to the Sheriff in the County Courts, and producing the King’s Writ, the Sheriff shall send one of his Officers to the Lord’s Court on the day appointed the parties by the Lord of such Court, in order that the Officer, in the presence of four or a greater number of the lawful Knights of the County, who by the Sheriff’s command shall attend there, might hear and see the proof of the Demandant, namely, that such Court had failed to do him Justice in his Suit. That the fact is so, the Demandant shall prove, by his own oath and that of two others, who have heard and known the fact, and shall swear with him.
Under such solemnity, then, Pleas are generally removed from these Courts into the County Court, and are there again discussed and finally terminated, without any contradiction or recovery on the part of such Courts, or the Lords of them, or their Heirs, so far as concerns the Plea in question. But if, previously to such Court being proved in the manner we have stated to have failed in doing right, any Plea should be drawn from it to the superior Court, the Lord of the inferior Court may take advantage of such circumstance and on the day appointed for the Trial of the cause reclaim his Jurisdiction; because his Court has not been proved to have failed in doing Justice; and thus he shall be adjudged to recover it, unless it be there proved, that his Court failed in doing Justice, as before remarked. It should, however, be observed, that if a Plea has been so drawn to the King’s Chief Court, it will be in vain for the Lord to reclaim it on the day of trial, unless, on the third day preceding, he had claimed it, in the presence of lawful Men.