Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The King's coroner and a murderer who had taken sanctuary in a church
often agreed to the penalty of confession and perpetual banishment from
the nation as follows: "Memorandum that on July 6, [1347], Henry de
Roseye abjured the realm of England before John Bernard, the King's
coroner, at the church of Tendale in the County of Kent in form
following: 'Hear this, O lord the coroner, that I, Henry de Roseye, have
stolen an ox and a cow of the widow of John Welsshe of Retherfeld; and I
have stolen eighteen beasts from divers men in the said county. And I
acknowledge that I have feloniously killed Roger le Swan in the town of
Strete in the hundred of Strete in the rape [a division of a county] of
Lewes and that I am a felon of the lord King of England. And because I
have committed many ill deeds and thefts in his land, I abjure the land
of the Lord Edward King of England, and [I acknowledge] that I ought to
hasten to the port of Hastings, which thou hast given me, and that I
ought not to depart from the way, and if I do so I am willing to be
taken as a thief and felon of the lord King, and that at Hastings I will
diligently seek passage, and that I will not wait there save for the
flood and one ebb if I can have passage; and if I cannot have passage
within that period, I will go up to the knees into the sea every day,
endeavoring to cross; and unless I can do so within forty days, I will
return at once to the church, as a thief and a felon of the lord King,
so help me God."
Property damage by a tenant of a London building was assessed in a 1374
case: "John Parker, butcher, was summoned to answer Clement Spray in a
plea of trespass, wherein the latter complained that the said John, who
had hired a tavern at the corner of St. Martin- le-Grand from him for
fifteen months, had committed waste and damage therein, although by the
custom of the city no tenant for a term of years was entitled to destroy
any portion of the buildings or fixtures let to him. He alleged that the
defendant had taken down the door post of the tavern and also of the
shop, the boarded door of a partition of the tavern, a seat in the
tavern, a plastered partition wall, the stone flooring in the chamber,
the hearth of the kitchen, and the mantelpiece above it, a partition in
the kitchen, two doors and other partitions, of a total value of 21s.
four pounds, 1s. 8d., and to his damage, 400s. [20 pounds]. The
defendant denied the trespass and put himself on the country. Afterwards
a jury [panel]... found the defendant guilty of the aforesaid trespass
to the plaintiff's damage, 40d. Judgment was given for that amount and a
fine of 1s. to the King, which the defendant paid immediately in court."
The innkeeper's duty to safeguard the person and property of his
lodgers was applied in this case:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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