Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	judge_n	law_n	4,882	5	5.2868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07323	A declaration of the estate of clothing now vsed within this realme of England 1 The royaltie and benefit of wooll and woollen cloth. 2 The condition of the makers, being two sorts. 3 The antiquitie and power of the alneger. 4 The manner of search and searchers, now vsed. 5 The seuerall faults and abuses practised in cloth. 6 The inconuenience and hurt by the abuses. 7 The remedie to be made by the alnegers prouision. VVith an apologie for the alneger, shewing the necessarie vse of his office. Written by Iohn May, a deputie alneger.	May, John, fl. 1613.	1613 (1613)	STC 17710; ESTC S120174	26,796	60

In many places are no searchers at all appointed In some places the Clothiers and makers keepe a searched seale of their owne to set on what they please but in most places those searchers chosen are vnsufficient in knowledge to performe their place or in ability to answere the penalties if they be of knowledge then are they such which be seruants or workmen to those Clothiers or makers which are the offenders whom they dare not punish nor offend and to auoide their breach of oath will send boies or other like people to performe their place and set on the seale else will they lend that seale to euerie one which demands it by which meanes they saue their oathes in seeing no faults and for their bonds they prouide for the safety of them by a combination betweene the Clothiers themselues none can challenge them but those which will keepe their counsell when any choise is to be made then are the clothiers suiters to the Iustices for such men as they nominate which are according to their owne hearts which request of theirs is seldome denied So there are often chosen Taylors glouers tanners butchers smiths or such like which haue no judgement at all in Cloth nor the place If malefactors of the Law might chuse their Iudge and Iurie they would seldome be cast The best search made by the searchers in any place is but to cast the Clothes into skales to see if they be weight or no which if any do want the clothier supplies that want with stones bricks lead leaden weights and other ponderous things which they cōuey into light cloth to make it hold weight which is easily done in regard those cloths brought to their beame are alwais made vp hard with tacking and binding that without opening those deceits cannot be found which they neuer doe yet ought to see the cloth quight through from end to end and to notifie the faults vpon the seale If by chance a fault appeares vnto them which they cānot auoid seeing for they striue to let al passe in such sort as their knowledge shold not be charged then do they punish the clothier for that fault as the Frier whipt the Nun with a Fox taile but there is not one fault amongst a thousand called in question Againe if question be made in some places then doth the Major there take vpon him more than the Lord Treasurer to determin the cause claiming a right vnto all these sorf due to them and so as it were hold an exchequer in euerie pettie town in other places the Iust of Peace decide those causes at their quarter sessions and so complaints past ouer according as the offendors make friends with them To maintaine this authoritie they take hold o● the statute of 39 El. c. 20. But that branch is repealed by 4. Iac. cap. 2. yet still by them put in practise One principal thing is to be cōsidered That so many thousands of defectiue cloths made within this realme as the smart thereof is too truely found yet are there none presented in the kings Majesties Exchequer but the abuses still maintained the common wealth wronged the king depriued of his benefit and the offendors escape without punishment all this is certaine and well knowne to all men CHAP. 5. The seuerall faults and abuses practized in Cloth IN discouering of deceit some cauilling humour may obiect it will rather serue for instruction to farther practize than preuento future harme It is aunswered that those practitioners in these abuses are so deepely experienced therein beeing in common vse of them as all other wits can giue them no more direction The purpose heere intended is to vnmaske the face of falshoode which seemes that it is not and to giue knowledge thereof to those that are wronged The art of Conycatching was a secret Mysterie vntill a booke of discouerie came forth which could not teach them who were perfect in their lesson without booke but cause the simple to see and the wisest to shunne their subtle snares prouided to catch their gulls The cause heere handled is nothing inferiour to theirs in cunning but much more beyond them in preiudice by the many more in number which feele the smart therof wishing this briefe relation might so effectually reueale the deceits as it might publiquely bee knowne aswell no those which indure the damage as them which commit the crimes and although euery particular fault cannot bee heere described by reason of their numbers which were too tedious yet the principals shall bee touched vpon which the rest depend hee that seeth a tree may easily viewe the bodie but hardly number the leaues but the tree beeing felled the leaues soone die Herewithall a difference must bee noted betweene the opinion of some people and the true intent of the law There are many sorts of cloth or stuffes lately inuented which haue got newe god fathers to name them in fantasticall fashion that they which weare them know not how to name them which are generally called newe draperie what hold canne the lawe take of them In the first lawe the cloth raye was vnderstood and colored clothes what sizes they should contain in length and breadth since that time prouision made by lawes for broad clothes kersies dozens penistones cottons and such like to containe length breadth and weight appointed but these new deuices are out of the reach of those lawes and free to bee made as it shall please the maker without contradiction To answere the same the briginall and ground is to bee vnderstood the wooll paies subsidie and the leugth of euerie peece allowes alnage and although the conuerting of wools whose condition yields to diuers inuentions be altered from clothes to stuffes shal the king lose his subsidy or the Alneger his see no it was long time since ordained by statute that all sorts of clothes although not of assise should pay subsidie and alnage And now of late yeres the said new deuises are growne to that quantitie as the old sort of clothing is much impaired and that greatly increased which is not to bee discommended in regard it vents our woolles and imploies our people But if gouernement and orders were not prouided to maintaine it in short time wee should find that as the same had eaten out the auntient drapery so falshood would ruyne that and leaue the people without imployment Why should there bee a distinguishment betweene old drapery and newe when the law allowes but one draperie As the condition of water may bee conueied diuers waies by riuers springs conduits wells pumpes fountaines pipes ponds and a number of seuerall meanes yet no alteration of the nature thereof so may woolls bee conuerted into diuers properties but yet the end and purpose of the same to serue mans vse and wearing as broadcloth and auntient cloth did If wee should haue a new law for euerie new name of stuffe now made and named the king must keepe a perpetuall Parliament to

towne or else where clothing hath beene vsually to the end that the eye of the officer should bee vpon their doings Now they scatter themselues in vnfitting places and if there bee but one clothier in a parish hee will demaund an Alneger to attend him if not force the Alneger to come vnto his house to seale his cloth where hee shall bestowe twelue peny worth of labour for the earning or receiuing of one groate and when hee comes thither hee shall find them searched by his neighbours that hee hath caused to bee chosen searchers who haue no skil or else by his workman who dare doe nothing but what himselfe directeth and if the Alneger will sometime call their search in question and trie the cloth hee shall neither haue place conuenient to view them nor weights of any certaintie to weigh them but such weights as they will bring him which shall bee stones logges and such other things as they will tell him their weight and hee must beleeue them There is no officer vnder the king so much deluded abused as hee beeing so necessarie for the kingdome and beneficiall to the crowne Somtime and in some places they will call him from his rest at all houres of the night to performe his office not for necessitie but of purpose to disturbe him with many other iniuries which they in base manner haue offered him but herein himselfe is most to bee blamed that knowing his owne power and place would suffer such indignities The course of these dayes is for such as will beare to haue greater burdens put vpon them than can bee borne It is vnknowne that any officer of the Kings which hath the keeping and vse of his seale should bee subiect to such seruitude neither is it conuenient therefore the true course herein to bee obsetued is for the Alneger to prouide in euerie place needfull for an Alnegers residence a conuenient roome for all Makers or Clothiers to come vnto wherein must bee a pearch to drawe ouer the clothes a table to measure and trie the clothes and a beame with true weights to weigh the clothes and the deputie not onely to bee sufficient in abilitie and knowledge but also bound and sworne to performe his office truely that hee shall bee there alwaies readie at conuenient or appointed times to make a true search in all points and in no place elswhere and vpon the altering of the propertie of the cloth to make a new search in these degrees First if the aforesaid corporation bee procured that then the clothes bee first viewed raw by the wardens or assistants of that corporation to see whether the cloth bee made of sound yarne or any deceit bee wrought by the weauer and beeing found merchantable to bee marked at the head end with a marke of allowance cut in the cloth according to the manner of search now vsed vpon raw Deuonshire kerfies but beeing defectiue either to iagge the same at both ends or cut off the head forrell from the cloth and to set such fine vpon the offendor as those Wardens or Ouerseers shall find the fault deserue But for the Alnegers charge when the cloth is thicked from the mill to measure the same truely in length and breadth not trusting to the clothiers content who will often for the credit of his cloth set on more length than it doth truely containe and that the Alneger doth set on the iust content in the water whatsoeuer it contayneth on his seale also expressing the the narrownesse or other defects which hee shall find And against euerie fault in the cloth to cut downe a notch of an inch deepe and therein fixe a seale as may appeare to the buyer where the fault is then when this cloth is fully dried that hee set one the iust content of weight also whatsoeuer it shall weigh all this to bee done before the kings seale bee fixed thereunto When any of those clothes are farther altered by dying dressing or strayning that hee cause those former seales of the water to remaine still vpon the cloth to expresse what it was and to set other seales vpon that cloth to shew vnto the buyer what that cloth is strained vnto according to the appointment of the Lords of his Maiesties councell which graunted a tolleration for certaine clothes to bee strained yet laid that charge vpon the Alneger that the difference betweene the water content and strained length might bee seene If other faults bee in that cloth either by dying or dressing that the same bee also notified by seuerall seales whether that cloth be colour graine woaded or contrarie in false color so that in of right it ought to haue those seales ollowing 1 A seale of water length Died clothes 2 A seale of narrownesse and defects Died clothes 3 A searched seale with the weight Died clothes 4 A seale for strained length Died clothes 5 A seale for colour and dressing Died clothes 6 The kings seale and countie Died clothes And that euerie seale set on by the Alneger may haue an especiall marke therein to signifie the place where it was sealed and by whom to the end that if any defects bee passed ouer by fauour or negligence in him he may bee rightly chalenged and punished for the same according to his error and that in all searches hee bee both present and principall at the rawe search with the Wardens or Ouerseers at search from the mill by himselfe and whom hee please at the search of straining and dressing by himsefe and such workemen of iudgement as hee shall make choise for sufficiencie and for the search of dying to haue alwaies the true opinion of the best experienced therin both for colours died in wooll and colours died in cloth and all to bee sealed according to their true propertie So heere is foure searches to bee made on a dressed and died cloth three searches on a dressed white cloth or kersie or of like nature and two searches vpon euery rough white cloth vndressed And to euerie one of these searches a fee due of two pence on euerie broadcloth and so according to the rate on all other clothes to bee paied and it may so happen that all these searches cannot bee performed in one place by reason that the cloth may bee wouen in one place milled in an other dressed in an other and died in an other so the diuersitie of search must be performed by seuerall Officers this cannot bee auoided but where the condition and propertie is altered the Officer there must make that search and by the seuerall seales appeare where the cloth was made where dressed and where died and by whom in euerie search seene and sealed In the maner of this search hee must obserue the seuerall penalties ordained by the law vpon all offences wherein hee must chiefely followe the direction of the Statute lately made in 4. Iacobi cap. 2. for length breadth and weight of all sorts of cloth which although hee