Inrolments of Deeds or Records thereof lying in so many dispersed and unsafe places should happen to be lost and subject them and their Estates to all manner of Claims and Controversies which they would otherwise have been freed of if they had been permitted to make use of the old and safe way of Fines and Recoveries which in all the Commotions of people or Petitions of Parliaments were never yet found fault with or desired to be taken away There will be a great difference betwixt Fines and Deeds inrolled not onely in the manner of passing and acknowledging of them but in the benefits priviledges and safety which as inseparable Concomitants do attend Fines but cannot by any Rule of Right Reason be simul semel or at all put over to Deeds inrolled or lodged in them for Fines which are to be acknowledged in Court before two Judges at the least or out of the Court before the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and if by Commission which is to be signed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper and Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas or by some of the Justices of Assise or the Circuit where the Land lieth ought to be directed to men of quality and conscience and expert in the Laws of the Land one whereof is to be a Knight the Writs of Covenant whereupon they are grounded passing the Great Seal of England and so many sworn Officers and Judges hands and perusals and have a duplicate or double Indenture of Chyrograph so cut one in another as one must necessarily discover the other if there be any variance or falsification in them and so many places and Offices recording them cannot be counterfeited or if they should will easily be found out but Deeds so to be Registred and Inrolled which shall not be attended with so many cares and cautions may easily be forged counterfeited or antidated and bring with them more deceits and incumbrances then they do pretend to prevent and fall into all the inconveniences questions and debates which Fines and Recoveries being the grand and common Assurances of the Land for Lands betwixt party and party have by those many Laws and Cases which have been adjudged to indulge and protect them hitherto avoided and escaped The same power and force which are granted to Fines cannot with justice or convenience be given to Deeds inrolled against the Bargainor or his Heirs or those that may claim the Lands because in Deeds there are most commonly reciprocal Covenants and some things to be performed on the Bargainees part which may demand equity or performance and many times no words of Warranty or Release but iâ— a Fine there is onely a Grant Release and Covenant to Warrant on the part of the Cognisor or he which levieth it And if taken away from the people will loose the Supreme Magistrate and his Revenue Ten or twenty thousand pounds per annum which the people having the benefit of such an ancient and sure way of conveyance Which had in 19 E. 1. now almost Four hundred years ago so great and due respect given unto it as it was by a Parliament held in that year declared That the Order of Law will not suffer them to be levied without a Writ Original and that the cause of the Solemnities then used in Fines was because a Fine was so high a Bar of so great force and so strong a nature in it self And hath been setled confirmed and brought to the perfection it now enjoys by fourteen or fifteen Acts of Parliament and for the greatness of the Assurance and the peace and quiet which it bringeth with it justly said to be Finis sructus exitus effectus Legis the end fruit and effect of the Law and a Fine because it doth Finem litibus imponere put an end to most Suits or Controversies can arise against it did never as yet or have in all their Petitions in Parliament which have been since or before concerning other grievances so much as complained of or grudged And though they had no cause or reason to complain of Fines and Recoveries will not like so well as the Proposers To be compelled to Register all their former Deeds or Evidences if but for Ten or twenty years past under a Constraint or Penalty to be otherwise of no effect or not so available in the Law as they would have been formerly CHAP. IV. Of the Registring of all Mens former Deeds or other Evidences if but for Ten or twenty years past under a Penalty to be otherwise of no effect or less then they would formerly have been FOr that were to make any Law which should be made to such a purpose to be guilty of a retrospection or looking backwards in its commands or prohibitions and the penalties ensuing thereupon which can have no rule or pattern from the Laws or Word of God who in the making of his most righteous Laws made them to binde and look onely to the future And when he might do what he would with his Clay not onely commanded those Laws to be written very plainly but was so willing to pardon sins of Ignorance as he ordained a Sacrifice to be made for them And when in the forbidding the Children of Israel to marry within certain degrees or nearness of Blood under the penalty of death or cutting off from the people he had said After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do Did not either punish or call them to account for any former marriages contrary thereunto Moses therefore who understood the minde of God concerning those Laws which he had received from him better then all other Legislators or Law givers which have been since the onely Son of God excepted being to die commanded them to be often read unto the people that they might hear and observe them The Wedg of Gold and Shekels of Silver and the Babilonish Garments for which Achan was stoned to death by all the people had not been the accursed things but the lawful spoils of War if the foregoing prohibition had not made them to be so Nor had Saul so grievously or at all offended or been punished for sparing Agag being his prisoner and captive in War if the command or charge of God before hand had not made it to be an offence Which our English Laws have so much imitated As the Act of Parliament of 36 E. 3. ordering all pleadings to be in English and Inrolled in Latin and not in French as they had been formerly did neither order or intend that all the Pleas for the years before should be entred over again and made to be in Latin The Statute of 23 H. 8. cap. 6. for acknowledging of Statutes or Recognisances for Debts hath an express saving for Recognisances taken before the Major and Constables of the Staple though they did not concern Merchandise which was the evil
forbid or take away the use and force of Fines and Recoveries Leases with Releases and Feoffments with Livery and Seisin which in the extent and validity thereof are far better Assurances but onely ordain That all Deeds whereby Estates of Inheritances or Freehold should pass or or be altered or changed from one to another by way of Bargain and Sale should not be good unless they should be Indented and Inrolled as that Act appointed and restraining onely the execution and effect thereof to the Inrolment within the time prefixed did leave the people to Inrol them where it might seem best or their own conveniences perswade them Wherefore an Inforced Registry or Inrolment of all such Deeds in the proper Counties if it should keep within the bounds of that Act and onely injoyn Inrolments of Deeds by Indenture where Estates of Freehold and Inheritance are to pass by way of Bargain and Sale will unavoidably produce many Inconveniences CHAP. II. The inconveniencies of an inforced Registry of such Deeds in the proper Counties THey will be illiterately carelesly and ill-favoredly Registred and kept in the proper Counties if either the pay or number of them shall not come up to the care and time are to be bestowed upon them or receive no other or greater Fees then are allowed by that Statute for Inrollments As it hath demonstrably already hapned in the taking and inrolling of Statutes Merchant by the Majors of the Staple in all Cities Burroughs and good Towns and their Officers thereunto appointed by vertue of the Statutes or Acts of Parliament of Acton Burnel in 11 E. 1. and the Statute de Mercatoribus in 13 E. 1. which have since the erecting of the Statute Office at London by the Statute of 23 H. 8. 6. to attend the Lord Cheif Justices of the Court of Upper Bench or Common Pleas and in their absence the Major of the Staple at Westminster and Recorder of London For acknowledging of Statutes for Debts have been so much disused and the course of Statutes Merchant which are yet in force for Merchandise so neglected as there are above a hundred such Statutes entred to or for every one Statute Merchant And whereas the Clerk of the Statutes who was by that Act of Parliament ordered to reside at London doth fairly and orderly enter and keep his Books and Records and after certain years lodg and lay them up for safety in the Tower of London It will upon search and inquiry appear that notwithstanding every Statute whether for Merchandise or otherwise is to be duly Inrolled by the Clerks or Officers upon pain of forfeiting of Twenty pounds for every Statute not entred or Inrolled there can be found very few of the Rolls or Books of the Statutes Merchant since 23 H. 8. and none at all of those that were taken and Inrolled in Two hundred years before The difference betwixt the now Statute Office which is inperpetual succession to such a capital City and superior Courts as the City of London and the Courts of Upper Bench and Common Pleas and annexed as it were unto them and the Town Clerks or Majors or Constables of the Staple in the other Cities and Corporations which do so often change and are by election as they become little more then as private persons giving us the reason why those Writings or Records in their custody coming afterwards through so many changes to so many several hands as they do can no way as it seems escape imbezelling We may well enough believe that the same fate may attend these Country Registers if they shall not be made to be as a Court of Record and in perpetual Succession and if they shall be made to be as so many Judicatures and Courts of Record will be the cause of more inconveniences to the people then the loss and imbezeling of their Records or Inrollments can come unto The City of London which did use to Inroll such Deeds in the Hustings and divers other Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate who did use to do the like and had therefore their Rights expresly saved by the Proviso of that Act of Anno 27 Henry the Eight for Inrollments and that it should not extend to any Manors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within the said Cities Boroughs or Towns Corporate for that they did anciently and before the making of that Act use to Inroll such Deeds will by these new Registries without any forfeiture or cause given to loose them be deprived of those their very ancient Rights and Liberties Such a constrained way of Registring of Deeds of Bargain and Sale which concern onely Estates of Freehold and Inheritance will be very inconvenient to Purchasors who most commonly do reside at or near London or Trade or come thither where the richest and most moneyed men and Purchasors amongst the people are to be found and whose Inhabitants or near dwellers do amount to almost the one half of the Commonwealth and added to such as upon Merchandise or other occasions do come thither and pass to and fro from Ireland Scotland and other Foreign parts will make up in number as many as the whole people of the Nation and be not a little prejudicial to such also as live in the Countreys more remote who for any thing of value do usually either come themselves on purpose to London or employ their Attorneys or Lawyers to procure their Conveyances to be there made where the best of Lawyers and most variety are most easily to be found and advised withal in the Term times to travel or send to those several Counties where the Lands do lie to have their Deeds Inrolled or for such as dwell and purchase in remote Counties either to content themselves at home with such Counsel oâ— Lawyers which the Country affords and adventure their Estates and Security upon it or go on purpose or send to London to have their Conveyances made and when they are brought home send to the Shire-Town to finde the Register or some before whom to acknowledge the Deed which may happen to be many miles distant from him and for them that buy in London to be at the charge to carry those that do sell and live as far as Yorkshire or other remote places or make their bargain in London for Lands lying in Wales or the West part of England into that Country where the Lands do lie And send or travel to Inroll a Deed for every parcel of Land in its several County the Lands therein sometimes extending into three or four Counties and many times into more then one when as now one uninconvenient charge to Inroll it at London will serve for Lands in all the Counties mentioned in the same Deed. Or upon any Suit or occasion at London or Westminster Hall where all the Suits and Actions of concernment are amongst many other businesses most commonly and commodiously dispatched at one and the same time by the Nobility Gentry Merchants Tradesmen
and Seamen of the whole Nation and the generality of all the people except Cottagers and day Laborers and the more rustick part of the Yeomandry or Husbandmen and do as so many several lines drawn from the circumference meet in the Term times or upon other occasions at London in one and the same center to travel or send backward and forward and perhaps to several places at great charges and distances to take Copies of Deeds or Records where now they can have them all in one place or within little more then a mile of it The Records or Registries which are to be as mens publick evidences when the private are lost will not in times of War or trouble which most Nations at one time or other do meet with be at all or so safely kept as the Records are at London being the chief City of the Nation and as the heart thereof the residence of the Supream Authority and such a strength as is not easie to be forced or taken and most likely to be the last place that shall suffer by any Foreign or Intestine Troubles and which hath hitherto in most of our unhappy Civil Wars for several ages preserved the Publick Records and Evidences of the people in the Tower of London Chappel of the Rolls and Treasuries at Westminster places not onely strongly built with stone but so carefully looked unto as no Candles or Fire are permitted to be used in the same There being always likely to be a vast difference between the safe keeping of Records and Evidences in a City that hath above Two hundred thousand men with a Magazin and strong hold and more Ships and furniture for shipping to guard them then all the Shire-Towns Ports and Havens of the rest of the Nation can make and furnish out if all were put together and a Shire-Town which hath neither Walls nor strength or any considerable number of people to defend them there being of Fifty and two Shire-Towns but Twenty two Cities and Walled Towns and those so weak and unfortified as Hull onely and Bristol and some few excepted every Rebel-rout or Insurrection may plunder or destroy them The consideration whereof did heretofore put the Kings and Supream Magistrates of England in minde to get from time to time as much as they could into their care and custody the Records of the Iters Judges Circuits the Hundred and Petty Court Rolls perambulations of Forests being the out-lying and scattered Records of the Nation and all that could be saved and got together from the rage and troubles of former times and the careless keeping of such as had the charge of them and put them into safe custody in the Tower of London or Treasuries for Records at Westminster and to that end from time to time did send their Writs to command the bringing in of the Records of several Courts into the Treasury which was usually done by Indemures under the hands of the Judges that brought them in and the Officers who received them and made allowances out of the Exchequer for the Kalendring and wel-ordering of them The having of which Publick Records Memorials and Evidences as so many Jewels of inestimable value wherein our Laws and Liberties and all that we have concerning our Estates Lives Progenitors and Predecessors do reside and are Recorded so safely preserved for the help and instruction of our selves and posterities being justly accounted to be a Blessing May teach or give us to understand what an evil condition the people of England would have been in if they had lost those Cabinets and Jewels of their Estates and Memories or were but inforced if they could be found again to send from as far as the people of Scotland do now with great trouble and expences from all parts of their Nation into England to the Tower of London to search and take Copies of the Evidences of their Estates or Reconcilers of their Controversies or how easily they might have been lost if in Wat Tylers Jack Cades or Ketts popular Frenzies they had been kept either in Kent or Southwark or such like open and unfortified places Or what had become of them if they had lain dispersedly in the Shire-Towns in our late harassing and destroying Civil Wars And that by such or some other disasters we might have had as bad an accompt of them as are now to be had of all the Records and Court Rolls of the Sheriffs Turns County and Hundred Courts Courts Leet or Courts Baron and Justices in Eyre since the time of William the Conqueror and K. Henry the Second When as none of the Sheriffs Turns County and Hundred Courts can shew us any Records of above Twenty years standing if so much the proceedings therein being either not entred at all as they should be or not well kept or ordered And the other Inferior Courts not far above One hundred years where any care hath been taken to keep them and many times not so much And for one that exceeds One hundred years there are ten which do not reach to half a hundred And that those Records of the petty and inferior Courts of Antient times which are now to be found in the Treasuries and amongst the Records at London and Westminster do not amount to any more then to about the Ten thousandth part of those Country and inferior Courts Records which are lost and not to be found and that those that are to be seen are but as some pitiful scraps and torn pieces of what have been rescued and taken out of the Jaws of Time and Antiquity Such an inforcement to Register all such Deeds in the proper Counties will without any necessity of War or Publick Safety take away the Common Right and Liberty which God and Nature and the Laws of the Land have given to every man and so far exceed Monopolies which never yet reached to mens private Evidences as that it will too much resemble the King of Spain's Paper which every man in Spain is bound to buy at a rate to write his Contracts and Assurances upon Will be as a selling of Justice contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and the Liberties of the People who have of late as well as formerly fought for them with the hazard and loss of so many of their lives and estates and which the Army have so often by publick and private Remonstrances called God and Men to witness they would be carâ—ful to preserve for them and if all Deeds of Bargain and Sale Registred shall be enacted to have the force and effect of Fines with Proclamations and Recoveries and Bar as they do CHAP. III. The inconveniencies if all Deeds of Bargain and Sale shall be Enacted to have the force and effect of Fines with Proclamations or of Recoveries and to Bar as they do THat most ancient and strongest kinde of Assurance for conveying and passing of Lands from one man to another by an undoubted and irrevocable Title
known to be in use long before and ever since the Conquest and which without any strained guess or conjecture and with more probability for it then against it may to such as know that our Fines are Recorded as an Agreement betwixt the Parties acknowledged in the Court of Common Pleas before the Judges Et multis aliis fidelibus ibi praesentibus and many other good people there present seem either to be deduced or very much to resemble that manner of assurance or conveyance which Abraham had of Ephron the Hittite when he bought of him the Field of Ephron for a burying place for himself and his wife Sarah where after the Agreement or Bargain made for it the holy Scripture saith it was made sure To Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth before all that went in at the Gates of the City which was their Court of Justice will be taken away to give place to that will be a great deal dearer and a worse assurance then a Fine which as to the Indentures of Chyrograph if there were no other necessary foregoing Writs and Solemnities to make it legal and prevent counterfeiting would amount but unto about Five or Six shillings And if it shall be endeavored to be made equal with a Fine with Proclamations and as safe from Forgeries and be a bar as such Fines are should be read and proclaimed and hung up in Tables as Fines are to be read at the Assizes in the County where the Land lies and be also hung up in Tables at Westminster-Hall and read and proclaimed in open Court or some eminent place in four Terms after the Ingrossing or acknowledging of it to the end that such as are for ever to be concluded by it may not pretend ignorance And yet if that were done there cannot be in a Deed inrolled reasonably supposed That Ground or Reason which besides the parties agreement and consent appears to be in a Fine or Recovery viz. That it is done upon a Demand Suit or Action and Interpleading in the Court of Common Pleas whereby the parties are for ever bound and debarred to say It was not so by the strength and power of a double Estoppel in so high a Court of Record against the Record whereof there can be no Averment For all our former Acts of Parliament do in their Preambles which are to be as the Keys to open and expound the minde and intention of the Makers and to bring the Act it self unto a reasonable Exposition most commonly if the Reason it self were not obvious not onely take care to express and declare the reason and cause of that which was commanded or forbidden but made every thing that was to be done in order to such prohibition or command to carry and bring along his reason with it whereby to make known its consistence and agreeableness with right Reason Which being the ground foundation and support of all Laws is so every where visible in our Laws where time hath not made some alteration of that which was before the basis and reason of it as every thing therein if not mistaken by ignorance or such as make too much haste to censure or condemn it before it be heard or understood may upon due examination some small or very inconsiderable defects perhaps or redundancies which the greatest perfections under the Sun are to be allowed onely excepted not onely justifie it self but condemn those that have been too busie in finding fault with it it being a never failing principle in the Laws that Ratio Legis is Anima Legis and gives life and being to it And therefore it will be a dangerous president and of ill consequence that Acts or things in Law grounded upon several Reasons and very much differing in the Magis and Minus or extent thereof should be made to be of one and the same operation and effect As that a Grant by Copy of Court-Roll should pass an estate of Freehold as well as Copihold a Fine levied by Tenant in Tail bar a stranger in Remainder as immediately as it doth the issue of his body or that a General Plea or Issue Not guilty the manifold inconveniences whereof have all over England been sufficiently experimented should carry and amount to as much as all other more legal Pleas and Issues or that any thing of an inferior consideration shall be of the same effect as a superior or more weighty As that the sign Manual or Privy Seal of the Supream Magistrate shall be as binding as the Great Seal of England that an Interlocutory sentence shall be as much as a Decree Sentence or Judgment upon a full hearing or debate that an acquittance without Hand and Seal or words of Release of all Actions shall be of the force of a Release of all Actions under Hand and Seal a Lease Parol or by word of mouth or a Deed Poll should be as much as by Indenture that a contract or promise of Marriage before two witnesses shall be as much as a Marriage duly solemnized and that things said or spoken without Oath shall be as much aupon Oath All which would be against that right Reason which do usually accompany our Laws Women Covert who upon levying of Fines were to be examined whether they did freely consent or do it must now sign and seal the Deed to be Inrolled as well as their Husbands if Dower be to be barred and examined as they were wont to be upon levying of Fines for by Law they are not barred by a Deed Inrolled in regard of their Coverture Deeds of Bargain and Sale covinously or deceitfully gained by greedy and insinuating oppressors in taking advantages and working upon mens necessities or gotten by cheating Gamesters of some yong Gentlemen who many times loose their Lands before they finde their wits or some fawning Cormorant Citizens who gets into such witless mens Estates upon kindly supplying their wants with a Knavish bargain of Beaver-Hats St. Omers Onions Brown Paper Pack-thred and such like Trash or loosing Commodities shall have no remedy or relief in Chancery allowed them as formerly If that such Deeds inrolled shall have the force of Fines and Recoveries for that against Fines and Non-claims and Bars by Recoveries there can be no releif to be had in Conscience or Equity because it might otherwise be a means to impeach and open a gap to break into all other Mens Estates and Conveyances So as that which by these Proposals is pretended to be a way to prevent deceipt will in such or the like case become the greatest fortifier and defender of it Such a transferring of the power of Fines and Recoveries into Registred Deeds may hereafter much prejudice and terrifie such as by this new way of Registring shall have deserted the suing out of Fines and Recoveries If another Parliament either in this or any future ages shall happen to repeal or take it away or the
to some few in particular yet such a Registring will certainly besides many other evils attending it revive and raise Controversies betwixt adversaries or such as have been the former owners or inheritors of the Lands make and multiply Suits which were never intended or incourage others to project or make designs upon men and their Estates and so breed and multiply Informers as few mens Estates or Titles shall be free from such kinde of Vermin and welwishers to themselves more then to the Commonwealth And if no other troubles shall break in that way lessen or take away the credit of those who were before reputed to have had a good Title to their Lands and Estates especially when the late Wars and Plundrings have lost or taken away a great part if not all of mens ancient and later Deeds and Evidences and where some shall appear to be Registred and others found to be wanting Or if they could be found or produced will many times be to seek for those that did seal or execute them whereby to have them acknowledged and registred Or when those that should be vouched to Warranty or sued in a Warrantia Charta or to perform Covenants shall be gone beyond Seas or dead or insolvent and no witnesses to be found that can tell or remember any thing of the contents or verification of them The want whereof may be a way to raise again when courage and necessity shall meet together the old way long ago laid asleep and disused by our now more safe then formerly keeping our Records and Evidences of gaging Battel in a Writ of Right and fighting by themselves or Champions To which and many more troubles and inconveniences which may be hereafter sadly experimented there will also be too large an Addition If all Bonds Bills Leases Releases Feoffments Contracts in writing and whatsoever writings else which may prove or happen to be Incumbrances upon Real and Personal Estates must also be Registred CHAP. V. Of the Registring of all Bonds Bills Leases Releases Feoffments Contracts in Writing and all other Writings executed which may incumber Real and Personal Estates FOr it will as to the Debts and Recognisances Fines Port-Bonds Obligations which have the force of Statutes Staple and Accompts due to the King or Supream Magistrate which by their many Priviledges Powers and Severities may bring great Incumbrances and Troubles upon such as shall deal with such Debtors or Accomptants by way of purchase or lending of money And as to Wills and Testaments which by disposing charging of Lands may sometimes obstruct or lessen the Estates and Assurances of Purchasers Decrees in Chancery and the Exchequer Fines and Recoveries Judgments Statutes and Recognisances raise a new and unnecessary charge upon the people upon a pretence onely that Incumbrances of Mens Estates and Lands cannot now be so readily found in Twelve or thirteen places in London within half a mile one of another as they hope they will be by their supposed better Registring or Kalendring of them in above Fifty several Shire-Towns some thirty some one hundred and twenty and the least twenty miles distant one from another For the Debrs and Accompts due to the Supream Magistrate and their discharges are already entred and inrolled in the Court of Exchequer attended by the Clerk of the Pipe and his great Roll the Two Remembrancers the Tally and Pell and Auditors Offices and need not to be twice Inrolled and Registred Wills and Testaments are Registred in Books of Parchment fairer and better kept then any Records of the Nation and for a small Fee or Recompence laid open to the view of such as shall have occasion to seek for any thing in them Fines are exactly and without any difficulty to be found in the Fine Office and Recoveries in the Clerk of the Warrants Office in the Court of Common Pleas the Decrees in Chancery fairly entred by sworn Registers and their Clerks in Books of Orders and so methodically kept and Kalendred as the search hath nothing at all of hardship in it and are if the Clerks of the Six Clerks do but their duty inrolled afterwards in Parchment and carried to the Chappel of the Rolls where they are most orderly kept and easie to be found the Recognisances acknowledged in that Court being with as little charge and labor to be found in the Inrollment Office and after they are Inrolled carried in and laid up amongst the Publick Records thereof The Recognisances taken before the Justices of the Peace are or ought to be duly certified into the Quarter Sessions and entred with the Clerks of the Peace of the several Counties Statutes not Merchant are orderly to be found in the Statute Office Decrees of the Exchequer entred into Books and kept by particular Clerks in the two Remembrancers Offices and the Judgments of that Court are as the Judgments are in the Courts of Upper Bench and Common Pleas at Westminster duly entred and recorded in their several Rolls or Records in Parchment and for such as are in the Courts of Upper Bench and Common Pleas entred upon Posteas and after Verdicts have their particular Clerks of the Judgments to enter and give accompt of them The Searches in all which several places making no great charge to the people some whereof are to be had for nothing others for Four pence some Eight pence others Twelve pence and the greatest not exceeding Sixteen pence which in a general search though all those Twelve or Thirteen London Offices and places will not altogether be so much as the charge of a Man and Horse for one days journey for a single search to a Registry if not much above twenty miles distance But if there could be any reason to enter and inrol them over again and put them into Fifty two several places and distances so far of from one another or to perswade or enjoyn people not to look for them where with most ease and less charge they are to be found The Clerks or Registers of such new erected Offices if either they or their business could be for the good of the Common-wealth will be too much exempted and at liberty if they shall not according to the Law and Rule of Right Reason hitherto observed be constituted and made to be under the Survey or Control and sworn as Officers or Clerks of some of the Superior Courts As the Clerks of the Tower Records and Chappel of the Rolls are of the Master of the Rolls the Custos Brevium of the Upper Bench of the Judges of that Court the Custos Brevium and all other Officers of the Court of Common Pleas are of their Judges the Two Remembrancers and Clerks of the Pipe by Act of Parliament and the Chamberlain of the Exchequer and the Keeper of Doomsday Book and divers ancient and miscellaneous Records of great value are of the Lord Treasurer Chancelor and Barons of the Exchequer For if they shall not be incorporate and subordinate
per pound for the other hundred besides other charges Which Writ of Extent being returned and filed in the Petibag is the Warrant for a Liberate directed to the Sheriff to give possession of the Land extended which is but many times the beginning of a greater charge in bringing Audita Quaerela's or Bills in Chancery When as it is in every year to be proved and acknowledged for a truth That of Eight hundred Actions or Writs issuing forth of the Court of Common Pleas or Upper Bench in a year in some one particular County for Debt upon Bonds or Bills or in some other Personal Actions there are no Warrants taken out to Arrest above Six hundred of them in regard of the Defendants speedy Agreement and of those Six hundred not above Three hundred are Arrested or come to enter their appearance and of those not above a half come to plead or make any defence and not the on half of them do afterwards come to tryal at the Assises and not a fifth part of those do come to move in Arrest of Judgment or sue out Writs of Error or put in Bills in Chancery And those that do not proceed so far as to Arrest do not put the Plaintiff or Defendant to so much as Ten shillings a peice charges the second sort including the former charges not Twenty shillings a piece if the Defendant be not a desperate fighter and hard to be taken and the third sort if there be no special or long Pleadings not above Thirty shillings in all and the fourth sort or such as come to tryal not above four or five pounds with all the charges reckoned together besides that of Witnesses or extraordinary Counsel so little is the expence of time and money in the present way or course of suing upon Bonds and Bills and other Personal Actions And so much is like to be the delay and charges and vexation of that which some would so willingly have to succeed it But if the trouble and charge of Certificates into the Chancery and suing out of Audita Quaerela's and such a generation of Suits as are like to happen by such a severe kinde of Securities shall be endeavored to be prevented by making every Registry to be a Court of Record and to have something to hear and determine as well as to Write and Register CHAP. VI. Of new Courts or Judicatories to be erected in every County to hear and determine Causes THere will be then Fifty two Judicatories or Inferior Courts more then are already erected one of which to be added to every County in England and Wales will come before they will be welcome or wanted for every Shire in England hath already the Summer and Winter Assises Quarter Sessions four times in every year County Courts every moneth Sheriffs Turns Courts Leet and Baron and weekly or three weeks Courts in its City or Towns Corporate amounting in every County to no less then Two hundred one with another which being in the wisdom of former ages and some hundreds of years past and every years experience since sound to be in their due limits and bounds very necessary and useful do make as many Law-days and meetings for the people as they have need of To help which new Courts or Judicatories to work or business if Bonds and Bills which they would have the Registring of or any other of the Causes or Matters which are and have hitherto been from time to time dispatched by the Courts at Westminster when they had before the Wars and Troubles of these later times almost half as much or as many again as they have now with good content and conveniency to the people and to all who have had occasion to seek for or attend their Justice if those that are ignorant or peevishly self-conceited or discontented because their desires or unjust expectations have been frustrated in some Actions or Suits which they prosecuted or defended would but let Reason or Truth be judge of their Mistaken-apprehensions and not lay their own or other mens errors or failings upon the Courts or Judges shall be transferred and carried into these County Judicatories from the more knowing and Superior Courts and Judges at Westminster who besides their well-known learning and justice in all Causes which are brought before them may for an evidence or testimony of the peoples approbation of them call to witness the many causes which for many ages together and in every year are and have been removed from the Inferior Courts to the Superior for want of Justice and the many Juries and Tryals at their Bars which by consent both of Plaintiffs and Defendants are yearly and termly brought from the Counties as well near as remote to be heard by the more learned sort of Judges and Courts And put unto the Judgment and determination of the less or very little or not at all able or knowing will stop up the ways of the places of the paths where Wisdom and Justice made their constant habitation deprive and take away if they shall not be impowred to try by Juries from every man so much of his part and interest in Magna Charta as the want of his tryal by his Peers or a Jury will come to put the spear of the mighty into the hands of those that are not able to weild or manage it inforce the people to inquire of the blind and deaf the way to make an end of their controversies by carrying their causes to such as are not able to judge or determine them which may after the expence of much money time and labor yield them as good a Crop or Harvest as Ulysses had when he counterseited himself to be mad by Ploughing the Sand or Shore with his strange kinde of Cattle and sowing of Salt instead of Corn. Or if the Sheriffs Turns and County Courts shall be put into the power and care of those Judicatures That ancient and necessary Officer of Justice and the execution of the Law will be made either to be as nothing or but the one half of what it was formerly and ought to be and the whole frame of that ancient and useful Jurisdiction put into disorder or dissolved or if the Hundred Courts Leet and Baron will take away the inheritance right and property of the Lords of Manors and the necessary relations and dependences which are and ought to be betwixt them and their Tenants contrary to Magna Charta and the whole tenor of our Laws and Liberties Or if these new Judicatories shall as the Systeme-makers had for the setting up of others not long ago contrived be made up of several parts or pieces and torn or taken out of that goodly order and frame of our Laws and Body Politick or as the Romans did in their original contempt and poverty in the getting the Sabine and Neighbor Virgins to be their Wives sally out upon other Jurisdictions and Ravish and take to themselves what
they can get and no way belongs to them will by all or any of those ways not onely vex and turmoil all sorts of people and bereave them as the Members of the Body Politick of the daily care influence and communication of Justice which they used and ought to receive from the head and supream Authority in a place so near unto it and those that sit at the Helm of Government of that termly intelligence which they should have and cannot well be without at London and Westminster concerning the due Administration and Distribution of Justice besides an half yearly inspection into the due execution of Justice in the several Counties of the Nation and the peoples content and satisfaction in it by the Assises wherein the Judges of the Superior Courts like so many Stars and Planets in our Firmament do keep their circuits and courses but give them stones instead of bread and grievances instead of remedies Especially if they shall be guided and managed by ignorant though honest well-meaning men or by tradesmen whom the Athenians and Romans those wise and great Common wealths-men of the World did never think fit to imploy in the Administration of Justice or some small practised or unmolested Doctors of Physick or men of a contrary Profession to that which should be the rule of their Judgment Town Clerks or such who think they can understand better then write or read Committee or Lawyers Clerks or such as shall be but Balbutientes or Noviâ—es in the Laws or very little or not at all furnished with the knowledge experience or practise thereof or be assisted by Sidâ—smen of their own capacities or such as being phantastick or self-conceited shall think they speak Law or Reason or do Justice when none but such as speed well by their doing the contrary can be of that opinion and would perhaps do right if they could understand the way unto it which to such men will not be very easie whilest like those ignorant Judges which Plato long ago complained of they sit as men astonished in the hearing of any difficult matter and are to be taught by others and for want of knowledge in themselves or how to distinguish betwixt right and wrong do not know how to judge of that which is said or pleaded before them but whilest every one of them must have his own discourse and speak his sense as they call it will be sure too often to leave the Point and Reason and Truth of the Case like some house or place infected with the Plague and a Cross and Lord have mercy upon us put upon it and rail against the Law because it puzzleth them and the Lawyers for troubling them as one of a Country Committee not long ago said with their many Reasons And misuse their power and make it Arbitrary in not doing what they might or should do doing many things they should not do and doing every thing they would do in making their Orders as their Vulgar Reason or the Byas of partiality or ignorance shall carry them or if one or more should happen to be Lawyers and the major part none their knowledge can go no further then their Votes or what they shall be able to perswade their misunderstanding or not at all understanding Companions unto Mean while the people who are sure to suffer by it are after a great expence of Money and abundance of Delays Attendance and Trouble which are usually to be found in such Courts of later Edition sent home with the sad stories of their grievances and complaints ready to make Affidavit That Ignorance in the Administration of Justice is an Accumulation of Evils the fruitful parent of many grievances and a mighty oppressor Which will not be all the evils and mischiefs neither which are like to come along with it For this their design of cutting as it were the Moon into Stars and erecting these Registries and little Tribunals will by degrees remove into them the business and being of the City of London and Courts at Westminster which hath hitherto by the Justice and Trade of the Nation residing in it and a concourse of all people and Nations been made to be in that flourishing condition which it was in at the beginning of the late Wars in a more near and especial manner then to the more remote parts of the Nation communicated her riches and increase to above twelve neighboring and adjacent Counties who by the raising of their Land and Commodities and a daily and nightly vent in sending of it thither have double or treble improved their Lands in their yearly Rents and values and will not onely bring a great loss destruction and ruine to the City and Suburbs consisting of above Three and forty thousand Houses above half whereof with the several Families and Inmates which are in the Suburbs being almost two parts in three of the number do depend onely or very much upon the termly meetings at the Courts of Justice but impoverish and make a general disturbance in all the parts and Counties of the Nation as well near unto it as remote Which are so incorporate and concerned in it as they that know how the Trade and Money of London is diffused and communicated to and over every part of this Nation and that there is not a City or Shire-town except Bristol and Hull but hath most of their Wares and Commodities from thence and most of that upon day or trust and that there is not a Mercer or Shopkeeper or Innkeeper in all other Cities and Borrough and little Villages but are furnished with their Wines and Commodities and are as tributary unto them and depend upon their welfare cannot deny but if London sink they are not like to swim or if London perish they are not like to be without the taste or sense of some of their miseries For no man can rationally imagine or believe that after such a ruine or distruction of this great Emporium and onely Town of Trade of the Three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and the taking away or lessening the Courts of Justice at Westminster the Commerce or Trade of the Nation can live or subsist in the Cantons or little pieces of Trade or Judicatories which shall be erected out of it or that it can produce any better effect then the laying waste of the glory of the Nation and the leading into Captivity the Laws and Liberties of the People or that half of the Fifty two Shire-towns or any of them can be so conveniently scituated as to have business and trade enough to draw all the people and commodities from all parts of the Nation to them or that Lincolnshire Fens or Buckingham or Northamptonshire Pastures or Essex and Suffolk Hertfordshire Kent and Surrey should or can finde in any of their adjacent Shire-towns or Registries the hundred part of the vent which they now have for Cattle Sheep Wool Hides Corn Malt Butter and Cheese