suis masculis, &c." Rot. Cart. 20 Richard II. Nu. 3. Anciently, before the Conquest, and since that period, to the time above, mentioned, the office of constable and marshal passed by grants: when the severance was effected, the office of constable became an hereditary office in families, by a tenure of particular manors in grand serjeantry. See Lambard, Hoveden. The office of marshal always passed by grants, whether an united or a distinct office, whether a single honour, or united to that of constable, which grants may be traced up to 1 John Rot. Cart, part 2. nu. 85. The grants of constable go no higher than i Henry V. Rot. Pat. part 1. Henrico Comiti North pro vita sua. So that after the grant made 20 Rich. II. of a separate hereditary marshal, the office of marshal became hereditary by grant, and that of constable by tenure. It appears from records before the Conquest, that the marshals were called Heretoches, from the Saxon here, exercitus, and teon, ducere: so that they were leaders, superintendants, or directors of the royal army. "Mareschalli exercitus, seu ductores exercitus, Heretoches per Anglos vocabantur." Fitzherbert, Nat. Brev. 85. Thus speak the laws before the Conquest. The office of constable, which was by hereditary right of tenure in Edward Duke of Buckingham, in the reign of Henry VIII. became extinct. by his attainder, upon the forfeiture of it to the crown by such attainder; and ever since has been an appointment by the crown, only upon grand occasions, such as a coronation, &c. and it is usual at this day, to revive the office. of Lord High Constable pro hac vice, upon the celebration of such solemnities. On the other hand, the office of earl marshal, which descended to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by hereditary grant, in the reign of Henry VIII. was surrendered by this duke into the hands of the king, in the 25th year of his reign; and was granted to the Duke of Norfolk, who was then vice-roy of Ireland; from whom it descended either lineally or collaterally to the present Norfolk family, who still continue in the possession and enjoyment of this honourable distinction. The powers vested in these two great officers of state, appear from the words of the statute 14 Rich. II. "To the Constable and Marshal it appertaineth to have conusance of contracts, and deeds of arms, and of war out of the realm, and also of things that touch war within the realm, which cannot be discussed and determined by the common law." Before these two officers, as judges, and other judges of the court, where the appeal was brought, was determined the ancient trial by battle: where gladiatorial ferocity passed for an inductive proof of innocence, and the very dregs of Gothic superstition assumed the sacred majesty of law; while the murder of one person, was to be proved by the murder of another. In these appeals of murder, upon the day appointed by the constable and marshal, the parties made their appearance armed with clubs or battoons, and before the conflict began each of them took the following un-solemn oath, "that they had neither eat or drank on that day, nor done any thing else, by which the law of God might be depressed, or the law of the Devil exalted." Then the combat began, which consisted of wounds and bruises, oftentimes occasioning immediate death, secundum legem baculi. It was singular that this bloody conflict sometimes lasted the whole day. Now, how the combatants could maintain such a long and severe interchange of blows without intermission, for nothing of this kind is mentioned, is difficult to determine. If the appellee yielded before the close of the day, he was sentenced to be immediately hanged; but if he could support the blows of the assailant till that time, he was then quit of the appeal: on the contrary, if the appellant declined the contest, he was sentenced to outlawry, and to pay damages to the appellee. Glanvil. lib. 14. Brac ton lib. 3. Sinith de Repub. Angl. lib. 2. Britton c. 22. In the book of entries, belonging to the abbey of St. Edmund's Bury, Suffolk, fol. 87, is a record or register of a writ directed to the sheriffs of London, in the 8th year of Henry VI. to provide lists and bars for a duel, that was to be fought between John Upton and John Down. The form runs thus: "Rex Vic. London, præcipimus vobis firmiter injungentes quod quasdam listas et barras de meremio* fortes pro quodain duello inter Johannem Upton et Johannem Down, secundum legem Armorum, die Lunæ prox' futur apud Smithfield, in suburb' civitatis prædicta, Deo dante, perficiend' contra diem prædict' nostris sumptibus et expensis erigi, construi, et fieri fac', et quod terra infra listas prædict' cum sabulo sufficiente co-operta, ita quod aliqui lapides grandes aut arena infra easdem listas minime inveniantur, et de omnibus et singulis pecuniarum summis quas circa præmissa applicaveritis nos vobis in computo *The idiom of this word is of Gallic structure. The word in the original is mere me, which signifies any sort of wood used for building. Claus. 16. Edw. 11. m. 3. vestro ad Scaccarium nostrum per præsens mandatum nostrum debitam allocationem habere faciemus." This is the only writ, now extant, upon record, which throws light upon this subject; and is therefore a matter of curiosity to those, who wish to be informed what the legal usage was upon the appeals of murder, so frequent in for mer times. The last joinder of issue, in a process of this kind, was between Lord Rey, appellant, and David Ramsey, appellee, both Scotchmen (Orig. Judicial. 65.) This combat was ordered to be tried before the Earl of Lindsey, high constable, and the Earl of Arundel, earl marshal, in the 6th year of Charles I. But the king rather shewing a dislike to the measure, a reference of the case was made to the lords, who at last submitted the matter to the king for his determination; who being of opinion, that Ramsey was unjustly accused, the matter was compromised, and at length finally adjusted, without the intervention of a jurisdiction, which from its cool and sedate attention to this legally bloody conflict, may be said to have set all the laws of humanity at defiance." 1784, March. REUBEN D'MOUNDT. XCVIII. The Word CERCELLA, in old Deeds, explained. March 3. MR. URBAN, THE ingenious communicative author of the History of Reculver and Herne, in a note to a grant of three acres of land, (dated A. D. 1357,) a part of the covenanted rent of which was one quarter of barley palmal', has suggested a doubt, whether the word palmal may be rightly copied, but observes, "if it is, it cannot be in any sense applicable to barley, unless it means, large sized grain." The justness of this surmise is confirmed by Cowel, who, in his Law Dictionary, says that "Palmarium Hordeum-Palm Barley, is the Sprat Barley called in some parts Beer Barley, and in others Battled Barley, and that it is fuller and broader than common barley." A query is also proposed by Mr. Duncombe in another note, respecting a word in an account of the rents paid for divers tenements secured to the hospital at Herbaldowne, by a mortmayne grant from Henry VI. I will transcribe the passage I refer to-It de Wil Yoe, &c. quatuor solidates et sex denariatas ac mediatem unius quadrantate, et redditum duarum sarcellarum, ac tercie partis unius sarcelle, unius galline et dimid. et quindecim ovorum exeunt, de diversis tenementis in insula de Herteye." Sarcelle is the term to which Mr. D. objects, because the only sense of sarcellus and sercellus in the Glossaries is the sign of an hoop indicating that wine is sold at the hoop where it hangs out;" an interpretation certainly it will not bear here.-The word is, however, incorrectly copied, it ought to be cercelle, not with an s, but a c, as it is spelt in the English instrument of Mortmayne, given a few lines above; and according to Somner* cercella is derived" from the French cercelle," and signifies "the water wild fowl, denominated by us a Teale," of which birds there probably was always an abundance in Hertye island. Two teale, and the third part of another, was a whimsical kind of reddend', and if delivered in kind, with exactness, would require the hand of a dexterous carver, But this is not the only curious article in the rent of this estate, for there was to be paid in money four shillings and sixpence and half a farthing. As there never was, I have a notion, any such diminutive piece of coin [in England+] the splitting of a farthing may be inferred to have been literally a practice in the 16th century. Historians inform us that our ancestors were wont easily to divide silver pennies into halves and quarters, by means of the double cross stamped on the reverse, and to pay or distribute the fragments in lieu of halfpence and farthings. To prevent such clipping and defacing, it was ordered by King Henry III. that no coin should pass current which was not round; and his son absolutely prohibited the use of broken money. The following are some of the verses made upon this regulation of Edward I. They are printedin Spelman's Glossary, ad verb. Denarius, from Stow's Annals, p. 506. "EDWARD did smite round, peny, half-peny, farthing, *Glossar, ad fin. X. Script. In a deed inserted in the Appendix to the Treatise on Gavelkind by Somner, it is mentioned that the prior and the convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, were to have yearly, at Christmas, from one of their tenants," Unum mathlardum, et unum annatem, et quatuor cercellas," p. 123. + "A French denier" says Chamberlain, " is equal to 4 of a farthing sterling." EDIT. Without a violation of the law, the poor people in Herbaldown hospital must have been deprived of the regular payment of half the least part of the rent that was due to them. 1784, March. W. and D. XCIX. Cross Bows. MR. URBAN, Litchfield, April 19. FROM your readiness to oblige your correspondents, I make not the least doubt but you will give the following account of the Cross-bow, a place in your useful Repository; especially when I inform you, it was transmitted to me by the very worthy and ingenious Mr. Grose, who, I hope, will not be offended at seeing it in print, as I think it is too valuable to be with-held from the public. RICH. GREENE, "With respect to the Cross-bow, it is a very ancient weapon. Verstegan says, it was introduced here by the Saxons, but was neglected till again brought into use by William the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings. Crossbows were afterwards prohibited by the second Lateran Council, anno 1139, as hateful to God, and unfit to be used among Christians; in consequence whereof they were laid aside till the reign of Richard the First, who again introduced them, and was himself killed by an arrow or quarrel, discharged from a cross-bow at the siege of the Castle of Chalus, which was considered as a judgment on his impiety. "Cross-bows shot darts called quarrels or quarreaux; they were headed with solid square pyramids of iron, and sometimes trimmed with brass instead of feathers*. "Cross-bows were used by the English, in their expedition to the Isle of Rhee, anno 1627. "There was an officer stiled Balistrarius Regis; and several estates were held by the service of delivering a crossbow, and thread to make the string, when the king passed through certain districts. These you will find in Blount's Tenures, and Jacob's Law Dictionary. The arrow-heads which have been found in Bosworth field are remarkably Jarge and long. EDIT. |