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
Every man shall have a warrantor to his market transactions and no one
shall buy and sell except in a market town; but he shall have the
witness of the portreeve or of other men of credit, who can be trusted.
Moneyers accused of minting money outside a designated market were to
go to the ordeal of the hot iron with the hand that was accused of doing
the fraud. If he was found guilty, his hand that did the offense was to
be struck off and be set up on the money- smithy.
No marketing, business, or hunting may be done on Sundays.
No one may bind a freeman, shave his head in derision, or shave off his
beard. Shaving was a sign of enslavement, which could be incurred by not
paying one's fines for offenses committed.
No clergy may gamble or participate in games of chance.
The Laws for London were:
"1. The gates called Aldersgate and Cripplegate were in charge of
guards.
2. If a small ship came to Billingsgate, one halfpenny was paid as
toll; if a larger ship with sails, one penny was paid.
1) If a hulk or merchantman arrives and lies there, four pence is
paid as toll.
2) From a ship with a cargo of planks, one plank is given as toll.
3) On three days of the week toll for cloth [is paid] on Sunday and
Tuesday and Thursday.
4) A merchant who came to the bridge with a boat containing fish
paid one halfpenny as toll, and for a larger ship one penny."
5 - 8) Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and
their tolls. (Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat
[tallow], and three live pigs for their ships.)
"3. If the town reeve or the village reeve or any other official accuses
anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that he has kept
back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he shall swear to this
with six others and shall be quit of the charge.
1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the man
to whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge.
2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he
shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to the King.
3) If he vouches the taxgatherer to warranty [asserting] that he
paid toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear himself by
the ordeal and by no other means of proof.
4. And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man who,
within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's house without
permission and commits a breach of the peace of the worst kind and he
who assaults an innocent person on the King's highway, if he is slain,
shall lie in an unhonored grave.
1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence, but
does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds for breach of
the King's peace.
2) If he values the goodwill of the town itself, he shall pay us
thirty shillings as compensation, if the King will grant us this
concession."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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