Yet some of the English shires did not lag far behind Kent. We may note “A customary or note of such customes as hath bin used, time out of mind in Aston and Coat in ye parish of Bampton in ye county of Oxon, and is att this time used and kept as appeareth by ye _sixteens_ who hath hereunto, with ye consent of ye inhabitants of ye said Aston and Coat, sett their hands and seals the sixt September, in ye 35th yeare of Queen Elizabeth, Anno Dom. 1593.” The “customary” contains twelve articles regulating the election and duties of the sixteens, of which the first is: “The Custome is that upon our Lady-day Eve every yeere, all the _Inhabitants_ of Aston and Coat shall meet at Aston Crosse about three of ye clock in ye afternoone, or one of everye House to understand who shall serve for ye sixteen for that year coming, and to choose other officers for ye same yeere. (2) Ye said sixteens being known, ye hundred tenants of ye same sixteens doe divide themselves some distance from ye Lords Tenants of ye said sixteens. And ye Hundreds Tenants do chuse one grasse Steward and one Water Hayward, and the Lords Tennants do choose two Grasse stewards and one Water Hayward, etc. This antient custome have ben confirmed in ye 35th yeare of Queen Elizabeth, 1593, by most of ye substantiall inhabitants of Aston and Coat, videl: “Roger Medhop (gent). The mark of Richard Stacy. The mark of Eliz. Alder. The mark of John Humphries. The mark of Margery Young. The mark of John Bricklande. The mark of Will. Young. The mark of Thos. Walter. The mark of Will. Wagh. The mark of John Newman. The mark of Richard Thynne. The mark of Robt. Carter. The mark of Will. Haukes. The mark of Ann Startupp. The mark of Will. Tisbee. The mark of John Pryor. The mark of John Church.” (_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv., p. 472), which adds, “Similar customs were formerly practised in Sussex, and may be found in the Sussex Archæological Collections.” We find another case in “Grant’s Treatise of the Law of Corporations,” p. 6.