Page images
PDF
EPUB

hundred pounds, and no more, and shall rate and ascertain the value of ACT FOR such estate, interest or demand, in proportion thereunto.

SURRENDER
OF THE

TITLE.

SAVING and reserving always to the said John, Lord Carteret, his heirs, PROPRIETARY executors, administrators and Assigns, all such estate, right, title, interest, property, claim and demand whatsoever, in, unto or out of, one eighth part or share of the said Provinces or territories, with all and singular the rights, members and appurtenances thereof, and of, in and to one eighth part or Exception as to Lord Carteret, share of all arrears of quit rents, and other rents, sum and sums of money, debts, duties, accounts, reckonings, claims and demands whatsoever, now due and oweing to the present Lords Proprietors of the said Provinces and territories, and all such other rights, titles, priviledges and powers whatsoever, as the said John, Lord Carteret, his heirs, executors or administrators now have or might have had or been entitled unto, in case this act, and the conveyance herein before directed to be made to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, or either of them, had not been, or should not be made.

SAVING also to all and every person and persons having or lawfully And others claiming any office or offices, place or places, employment or employments, holding offices. by or under any grant or grants thereof made before the said first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven, under the common seal of the said Lords Proprietors, either in England or in the Provinces aforesaid, all such estate, right, title and interest in or to such office or offices, place and places, employment and employments, as they or any of them now have or might have had, or been entitled unto, in case this Act had never been made.

OF THE VARIOUS PROMULGATIONS OF MAGNA CARTA.

(BY THE EDITOR.)

The Charter of the first year of Henry 1st, A. D. 1101.

The Charter of King Stephen, confirming the preceding, A. D. 1136. The confirmation of the Charter of Henry 1st, by Henry 2d, without date. A Charter of the 16th. of King John. 1214.

Articuli Magne Carte libertatum, sub sigillo, Johannis regis. A. D.

1215.

Magna Carta Regis Johannis, 15 June, 1215, signed at Runimed, (datum per nostram manum in prato quod vocatur Runimed inter Windleshorham, et Staines, 15mo., Junii, Regni nostri 17mo., A. D. 1215.) This is the Great Charter of Runnimead or Runningmead, a meadow at the foot of Cooper's hill, between Staines and Windsor, about twenty miles from London, on the River Thames.

Magna Carta, 1 Henry 3. Nov. 12, 1216.

Magna Carta, Henry 3, A. D. 1217.

Carta de Foresta, 2 Henry 3d. 6th Nov. 1217.

Magna Carta, 9 Henry 3d. 11th Feb. 1224-5.
Carta de Foresta, same date.

Magna Carta, 36 Hen. 3.

Carta Confirmationis, 49 Henry 3.

Magna Carta, 25 Regis Edwardi primi, 12 Oct'r, 1297.

Carta Confirmationis, 25 Edw. 1st. 5 November, 1297.

Carta de Foresta, 28 Edw. 1. 28 March, 1300.

Carta Confirmationis, 29 Edw. 1. 14 Feb'ry, 1300-1.

All these are contained in the Folio Edition of The Statutes of the Realm, published in 1810 by the authority of Parliament, and to be found in the Library of the South Carolina College.

The first Parliamentary adoption at full length of any of these Charters, seems to have been the confirmation of the Magna Carta of 9th. Henry 3 by Edward the first in the 25th. year of his reign, 1297; which confirmation contains a recital of that Magna Carta. Hence, every known edition of the Statutes at Large, commences with this confirmation of the Charter of the 9th. Henry 3, which the Parliament of England adopted and enacted; none of the preceding Charters having been thus sanctioned at full length by a formal act of Parliament. Such was the case with the edition of Statutes at Large by Joseph Keble, Esq. adopted by the Legislature of South Carolina, in act of Assembly No. 333, A. D. 1712, which begins like those of Hawkins, Ruffhead, & Pickering, with the statutory confirmation and recital of 25 Edw. 1 (Stat. of the Realm, Introd. ch. 2. p. XXIX.) Pulton's edition, which preceded Keble, commences also with the Charter 9 Hen. 3. so that the Legislators of 1712 had no means

MAGNA CARTA.

of consulting any published edition of any Magna Carta, but that of 9 NOTES ON Hen. 3. The preceding editions of the Statutes at Large, containing no other. Nor do I know of any publication of the various Magna Carta's which preceded the confirmation above mentioned, in England so early as the year 1712. The great Charter of Runnymede, was therefore probably unknown unless by name to the Legislators of South Carolina, in 1712. But that Charter of Runnymede is the Magna Carta by way of eminence, and the subsequent editions omit many clauses of the original, for reasons which seem to be temporary. The notes in Rapin contain little that a Lawyer is not conversant with, I have therefore omitted them.

Hence, as the Magna Carta of King John, which the Barons forced from him on the 15th. June, 1215, at Runnymede, is the great Charter principally referred to by the English Historians, I have thought it expedient to insert at full length both that Charter, and the confirmation by Ed. 1. of the Magna Carta of 9th. Henry 3. For although the Legislature of South Carolina adopted of these Charters no more than the first, eighth, eighteenth, twenty eighth, twenty ninth, and thirty fourth chapters (or sections) of the Magna Carta of 9th. Henry 3d. I consider that this mutilation of a document so important in the legal and constitutional history of that country which has furnished so large a portion of our own jurisprudence, would be unsatisfactory to the great majority of the legal profession of the State.

Our American improvement of written Constitutions, is undoubtedly founded on this portion of the constitutional history of England; and it appeared to me, that an edition of the Laws under legislative authority, would well authorize the insertion at full length of these two editions of Magna Carta, especially as that of 9th. Hen. 3, contains variations from that of King John.

The statutory confirmation of 9th. Hen. 3 by 25 Edw. I have copied with the translation from the Statutes of the Realm, and Owen Rufthead's edition of the Statutes at Large. Keble's is not to be found.

The Charter of King John, I have taken from Blackstone's Law-tracts, compared with the edition in the Stat. of the Realm. The translation I have adopted from Rapin's Hist. of England.

The following enumerations of the various confirmationss of the Charters, I have copied from Ruff'head's note to the Charter of 9. Hen. 3d. 52 Hen. 3, ch 5. 25 Edw. 1 stat. 1 ch 1-2-3-4. 28 Edw. 1 stat. 3 ch 1.1 Edw. 3. stat. 2 ch 1. 2 Edw. 3 stat. 2 ch 1. 4 Edw. 3 ch 1. 5 Edw. 3 ch 1, 9. 10 Edw. 3 stat. 1 ch 1. 14 Edw. 3 stat. 1 ch. 1. 15 Edw. 3 stat. 1 ch. 1. 28 Edw. 3 ch 1. 31 Edw. 3 stat. 1 ch 1. 36 Edw. 3 stat 1 ch. 1. 37 Edw. 3 ch 1. 38 Edw. 3 stat 1 ch 1. 42 Edw. 3 ch 1. 45 Edw. 3 ch 1. 50 Edw. 3 ch 2. 1 Rich. 2 ch 1. 2 Rich. 2 stat. 2 ch 1. 6 Rich 2 stat. 1 ch 1. 7 Rich. 2 ch 2. 8 Rich 2 ch 1. Hen. 4 ch 1. 2 Hen. 4 ch 1. 7 Hen. 4 ch 1. 9 Hen. 4 ch 1. 13 Hen. 4 ch 1. 4 Hen. 5 ch 1. See also appendix No. 1. Grimke's Public Laws.

5 Rich 2 stat. 1 ch 1.
12 Rich. 2 ch 1. 1

I insert of these, the Runnymede Charter of King John, as being the document of most historical note; and the 9. Hen. 3 confirmed by 25 Edw. 1. being that with which "The Statues at Large," usually commences, and which our act of 1712 has in part adopted.

In fact, all these documents are enacted by and included in the third and fifth sections of the act of Dec. 12, 1712, No 331 p 25 of Grimke's Public Laws, and p 98 of the same: which sections are as follow.

"Sect. 3. All the Statutes of the Kingdom of England relating to the allegiance of the people, to her present Majesty Queen Anne, and her VOL. I.-10.

NOTES ON lawful successors, and the several public oaths, and subscribing the tests MAGNA CARTA required of the people of England in general by any of the said Statutes

of the said Kingdom, and also all such Statutes in the Kingdom of England as declare the rights and liberties of the subjects and enact the better securing of the same, and also, so much of the said Statutes as relates to the above mentioned particulars of the allegiance of the people to their sovereign, the public oaths, and subscribing the tests required of them, and the declaring and securing the rights and liberties of the subjects, are hereby enacted and declared to extend to, and to be of full force in this province, as if particularly enumerated in this act."

"Sect. 5. So much of the Common Law of England is enacted and made of force, as is not altered by the above enumerated acts, or inconsistent with the particular constitutions, customs, and laws of this province," &c.

Under this authority, I have inserted in succession, as one class of Laws, the Magna Carta of King John; the Magna Carta of Henry 3; the confirmation thereof by 25 Edw. 1; the petition of right to King Charles the first, and his acquiesence therein; the Habeas Corpus act of Ch. 2d; and the Bill of Rights 1 William and Mary, sess. 2 ch 2.

CONTENTS OF THE GREAT CHARTER OF KING JOHN.

1215.

The Sections marked * not included in the Magna Carta of Henry 3d.

Preamble.

Section 1. The Church of England shall be free, and enjoy her whole rights and liberties inviolable.

Sec. 2. The underwritten liberties granted to all freemen and their heirs forever.

Sect. 3. Inheritances to be held by the antient relief.

Sect. 4. If the heir be a ward, he shall have his inheritance when he comes

of age, without relief or fine.

Sect. 5. No waste shall be made by a guardian in ward's lands.
Sect. 6. Guardians shall maintain the inheritance of their wards.
Sect. 7. Heirs shall be married without disparagement.

Sect. 8. A widow shall have her marriage inheritance, and quarantine.
Sect. 9. A widow shall not be compelled to marry against her will.
Sect. 10. How distress shall be made, and sureties proceeded against.
Sect. 11. The same subject continued.

*Sect. 12. Of a Jew's debtor dying.

*Sect. 13. Of the widow and children of persons dying in debt to Jews. *Sect. 14. Scutage and Aid not to be exacted without consent of the common council of the Kingdom, except in certain cases.

Sect. 15. The city of London shall have its ancient liberties and customs, Sect. 16. And so shall all other towns.

*Sect. 17. Scutage to be assessed by consent of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbotts, Earls and great Barons of the realm.

*Sect. 18. Tenants in Capite to be summoned.

*Sect. 19. The business to proceed, though all who were summoned do

not attend.

*Sect. 20. No leave to be granted in future to any one, to exact an Aid of his own free tenants; except reasonable aid in certain cases. Sect. 21. None shall distrain for more service than is due. Sect. 22. Common Pleas shall not follow the King's Court.

Eyre to be appointed to hold Assizes.

Justices in

Sect. 23. The causes that may not then be tried at the Assizes, shall be

referred for trial to Knights and Freeholders.

Sect. 24. How freemen of all sorts shall be amerced.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »