"Besides the tenants of the king, which held _per baroniam_, (by the right of a baron,) and did suit and service (served as judges) at his own court; and the burghers and tenants in ancient demesne, that did suit and service (served as jurors or judges) in their own court in person, and in the king's by proxy, there was also a set of freeholders, that did suit and service (served as jurors) at the county court. These were such as anciently held of the lord of the county, and by the escheats of earldoms had fallen to the king; or such as were granted out by service to hold of the king, but with particular reservation to do suit and service (serve as jurors) before the king's bailiff; _because it was necessary the sheriff, or bailiff of the king, should have suitors_ (_jurors_) _at the county court, that the business might be despatched. These suitors are the pares_ (_peers_) _of the county court, and indeed the judges of it; as the pares_ (_peers_) _were the judges in every court-baron_; and therefore the king's bailiff having a court before him, there must be _pares or judges, for the sheriff himself is not a judge_; and though the style of the court is _Curia prima Comitatus E.C. Milit.' vicecom' Comitat' præd' Tent' apud B._, &c. (First Court of the county, E.C. knight, sheriff of the aforesaid county, held at B., &c.); by which it appears that the court was the sheriff's; _yet, by the old feudal constitutions, the lord was not judge, but the pares_ (_peers_) _only_; so that, even in a _justicies_, which was a commission to the sheriff to hold plea of more than was allowed by the natural jurisdiction of a county court, _the pares_ (_peers, jurors_) _only were judges, and not the sheriff_; because it was to hold plea in the same manner as they used to do in that (the lord's) court."--_Gilbert on the Court of Exchequer_, ch. 5, p. 61-2. "It is a distinguishing feature of the feudal system, to make civil jurisdiction necessarily, and criminal jurisdiction ordinarily, coëxtensive with tenure; and accordingly there is inseparably incident to every manor a court-baron (curia baronum), _being a court in which the freeholders of the manor are the sole judges_, but in which the lord, by himself, or more commonly by his steward, presides."--_Political Dictionary_, word _Manor_. The same work, speaking of the county court, says: "_The judges were the freeholders who did suit to the court._" See word _Courts_.