Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Borough ordinances often include arson such as this one: "And
if a street be set on fire by any one, his body shall be attached and
cast into the midst of the fire." Robbery by the miller was specially
treated by an ordinance that "And if the miller be attainted [found
guilty] of robbery of the grain or of the flour to the amount of 4d.,
he shall be hanged from the beam in his mill."
In London, an ordinance prescribed for bakers for the first
offense of making false bread a forfeiture of that bread. For the
second offense was prescribed imprisonment, and for the third offense
placement in the pillory. A London ordinance for millers who caused
bread to be false prescribed for them to be carried in a tumbrel cart
through certain streets, exposed to the derision of the people.
By statute, no one may make a gift or alienation of land to the
church. An attempt to do so will cause the land to escheat to the lord,
or in his default, to the King. Religious houses may not alienate land
given to them by the king or other patrons because such gifts were for
the sake of someone's soul. An attempt to do so will cause the land to
revert to the donor or his heir. If the church did not say the prayers
or do the other actions for which land was given to it, the land will
revert to the donor or his heir. Land may not be alienated to religious
bodies in such a way that it would cease to render its due service to
the King. (The church never died, never married, and never had
children.) The church shall send no money out of the nation. (This
statute of mortmain was neutralized by collusive lawsuits in which the
intended grantor would sue the intended grantee claiming superior title
and then would default, surrendering the land to the intended grantee
by court judgment.)
"Concerning wrecks of the sea, where a man, a dog, or a cat
escape alive out of the ship, that such ship nor barge nor anything
within them shall be deemed wreck, but the goods shall be saved and
kept by view of the Sheriff, Coroner, or the King's Bailiff". If anyone
proves the goods were his within a year and a day, they shall be
restored to him without delay. Otherwise, they shall be kept by the
King. "And where wreck belongs to one other than the King, he shall
have it in like manner". If he does otherwise, he shall be imprisoned
and pay damages and fine.
Some statutes applied only to Kent County, which had a unique
position between London and the continent. Money flowed between England
and the continent through Kent. So Kent never developed a manorial
system of land holding, but evolved from a system of clans and
independent villages directly into a commercial system.
In Kent, all men are free and may give or sell their lands without
permission of their lords, as before the Conquest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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