the said great Rolle after the title of Nova oblata And the said Treasurers Remembrancer out of his Office makes forth Writs of Distringas to all Sheriffes against the Kings tenants for preserving of his Majesties tenures and services Writers of Distringas and the Issues thereupon returned by the said Sheriffes in every Shire certifieth to the Clarke of the Estreats twice in the yeare to bee by him sent forth to the Sheriffes in the Summons of the Greenwax And for the fines due to the King for respiting the homage of his tenants the said Treasurers Remembrancer chargeth himselfe with all those fines which are drawne into the Pipe and by him answered unto the receit as also for all the Castle ward rents in severall Counties payable to the Castle of Dover Stat. anno 32. H. 8. And the Kings Majesties Remembrancer in his Office recordeth all fines and other debts sent into his Office out of any other Court and recovereth all such Recognizances Amerciaments fi fac of Sheriffes moyties of forfeitures about custome causes or upon penall Lawes and the like and sendeth the Records thereof into the Pipe and also of such Bonds and Obligations as are forfeited and recovered for the King to be from thence drawn downe and charged for his Majesties service in the said great Rolle And also maketh forth the writs of Distringas against all Accomptants whose names are to be entred upon the States of Accomptants in his Office as well the Master of the horse the keeper of the Warderob Treasurer of the Chamber Treasurer at Warres Treasurer of the Navy collectors of Subsidies and Customes and all receivers of the Kings Revenues and other Accomptants whatsoever who are to make their accompts in the Exchequer and against such as have had any money imprested to them for the Kings speciall service and the like to see Issues returned against them untill they shall perfect their said accompts before the severall Auditors thereunto assigned and enter the same upon the Rolle of the States of Accomptant in his Office and before the Treasurers Remembrancer upon the Rolle of Viewes in his Office from whence the said accompts after they are declared before the Treasurers and Barons of the Exchequer and so entred as aforesaid are also to be sent into the Pipe there to remaine as the Kings and Subjects evidence upon record for ever as also to the end Proces may bee made from thence for such supers and debts as are therein depending And all such Issues as are lost by any of the said Accomptants for their not accompting in due time and by the Sheriffes returned upon the said Writs of Distringas sent from the said Office of the Kings Remembrancer are in like manner twice in the yeare to be estreated to the said Clarke of the Estreates to be by him sent forth in the Summons of the Greenewax accordingly In his Office also is kept the red Booke of the Exchequer being an excllent Treatise of the ancient Rolles and Lawes of the Exchequer conceived to be collected by Gervasius Tilburiensis tempore H. 2. which book is commonly sent by the Cursiter Baron into the Kings Bench and Common Pleas or in the Tearme time to remove any matter sued there against any Officer Minister or servitor of theirs or any Accomptant there that prayeth his priviledge in due time upon which red booke so shewed and the party testified by the Baron to be of that Court as aforesaid his priviledge is usually allowed And both the said Remembrancers doe make forth copies to the Auditors of all Seisures made by Sheriffes for any debts or by reason of any Alienations Outlawries or other duties to the King upon the writs sent out of their Offices to be by the said Auditors respectively charged in the said Sheriffes forraine accompts In which their said forraine accompts the said Auditors which take these accompts are to enter the particulars where with every Sheriffe chargeth himselfe for the goods and chattells of fellones outlawed and attainted persons waifes estraies and the like according to the ancient course of the Exchequer And for that there may be some just cause of discharge of the Sheriffe and debtor by an absolute exo or of the Sheriffe for his yeare by an exo de anno of some part of the Seisures and Issues charged in his said forraine accompt or of some other part of the debts or farmes charged upon him in the said great Roll of the Pipe or of some part of the Greenwax moncies charged upon him by the said forraine Apposer as aforesaid as for instance There may be some just cause for discharge of the Sheriffe and debtor by an absolute exo upon his accompt of some seisure debt or duty charged upon the said Sheriffe as aforesaid in regard there was a preconveiance of the land by the debtor bona fide before the debt grew due to the King or that the debt or duty for which the said seisure was made is fully satisfied and answered to the Crowne or for that the like debt or duty it selfe is absolutely to bee discharged by plea judgement gist or grant from the Crowne or by some other good matter of record And as there may be just cause for an absolute exo to the Sheriffe and debtor so there may be as just cause for an exo de anno to the Sheriffe upon his accompt of some of the seisures and debts charged upon him as aforesaid either in regard the lands in seisure are in the Kings hands by reason of the minority of the heire or owner of the said lands or for that the said lands were made in Iointure or in Lease for terme of yeares or life before the debt grew due or the like in all which severall cases the Lord Treasurers Remembrancer upon sight of such good matter of record or other such just cause allowed of by the Court as aforesaid is upon the desire and petition of the Sheriffe to bee discharged thereof upon his accompt to rule severall petitions to every Sheriffe upon his or their said accompts respectively for an absoute exo or an exo de anno for the same as the case shall require which is to be by him alledged and set downe to every petition accordingly howbeit the said Treasurers Remembrancer is not to rule any such petition for an absolute exon or exon de anno to any Sheriffe of or for any Seisure Farme Debt or other summe of money whatsoever but of such onely as shall fully appeare to him either by the Sheriffes forraine accompt it selfe or by some Constat or Certificate in parchment under the hands of the Clerke of the Pipe or Clerke of the Estreats respectively to be part of the Sheriffes charge so charged upon him in his accompt in the said great Roll for that if such petition should be allowed to the Sheriffe of any summe being no part of his charge the King should lose and bee defrauded
the most part left to bee written for who if they had but a Cow or any poore Utensills were driven from time to time to make their peace with the Sheriffes Bailiffe in the Countrey with some of their poore estate which the said Bailiffes tooke as it were nomine districtionis to their own use without answering any part thereof to the King to the greater impoverishing and sometimes undoing of the said poorer sort of the Kings subjects In consideration whereof and for the better preventing of the like abuses for time to come it was in the time of the late King James thought fit by the Treasurer Chancellor Vnder-Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer All mens care no mans care that there should bee for ever an Officer in the Exchequer called the Surveyor of the Green-wax formerly mentioned who should take speciall care to see the said Revenue better managed and from time to time to attend the Court and acquaint the Barons therewith as the case should require And this was upon the matter agreeable with an ancient Statute made in Anno 27. E. 1. Stat. anno 27. E. 1. By which it was provided that at one time certaine every yeare one Baron and one Clerke of the Exchequer should goe through every Shire of England to examine and view the Acquittances of Sheriffes and their Bailiffes touching Green-wax and to inroll them and also to heare and determine complaints made against Sheriffes and their Clerks and Bailiffs that had been done concerning the premises and the offenders to bee grie vously punished It being conceived that the discontinuance of that good ordinance had occasioned the many abuses and grievances aforesaid In the last place the remedy for preventing the like abuses and misdemeanors in generall both towards the King and his Subjects for time to come is That speciall care bee taken to see that the ancient course of the Exchequer and the Lawes of the Kingdome formerly mentioned for the better and more timely and husbandly answering and the more due and legall charging and discharging of the Kings Revenues bee strictly observed and kept and to see that due punishment be inflicted upon the violators there of accordingly As also to see that all those fore-going causes which hinder the Kings service therein and the quiet of his Maties subjects be removed And especially that the Sheriffe in his yeare according to his Proces sent unto him out of the Exchequer in the Lent Vacation and Summer Vacation without any respect of persons doe his uttermost to levie all such debts and summes of money as shall be so written to him as a foresaid And yet where I say without respect of persons I desire to bee rightly understood that the persons of all the English Nobility and their Dowagers Barons and Baronnesses are exempted from all arrests for the Kings debts as by the Prerogative Writ before mentioned may appeare And so are the persons of all and every the Knights and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament so long as the Parliament continues Neverthelesse in my best understanding and observation I doe not finde but the Rents and Debts due to the King have in time of Parliament been levied by Sheriffes upon the issues and profits of their lands and goods Moreover forasmuch as the Kings Majesty his Heires and Successors may be much hindred by the negligence and connivence of the Officers of the Exchequer by reason of a late Statute made in the one twentieth year of the reigne of the late King James whereby it is provided that all and every Sheriffe and Sheriffes within the Realme of England and Dominion of Wales their Heires Executors and Administrators and their Lands Goods and Chattels shall bee absolutely discharged of all and all manner summe and summes of money which hee or they shall leavie or receive unlesse such Sheriffe or Sheriffes shall bee called in question for such summe or summes of money pretended to bee leavied and received by them or any of them and not accompted for within foure yeares next after they have finished or shall finish their accompts and had their Quietus est That for preventing thereof some Act may bee passed in Parliament that where any Sheriffe or Sheriffes which since the making of the said Act or at any time hereafter have or shall procure and obtaine any such Quietus est by meanes whereof they or any of them are or hereafter shall bee by force of the said Act discharged or acquitted against the King his Heires or Successors of or for any summe or summes of money by them leavied and not answered upon their said accompts or of or for any untrue or double allowance upon their said accompts that in all such cases the Officer or Officers who have or shall make any such Quietus est and have not nor shall not within the time by the said Statute limited by some proces or other proceedings in the Exchequer called or call the same in question against the said Sheriffes their Heires Executors or their Lands Goods or Chattels for preventing the losse and prejudice which otherwise may happen to the Crowne thereby and every Officer by whose default any such summe or summes of money by force of the said Statute shall bee lost to the King his Heires or Successors being thereof lawfully convicted shall pay and forfeit to the use of his Majesty his Heires and Successors all such summe and summes of money as the said King his Heires or Successors shall or may lose thereby to be recovered against the said officers their Heires Executors Administrators their Lands Goods and Chattels in such manner and sort as the same might have been recovered by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme against the said Sheriffes if the said Act had not beene made And that in all such cases where by the Lawes of this Kingdome and the course of the Exchequer any Officer or Officers of the said Court are to deliver any Accompt or Accompts into any Office or Offices of the said Court by and at some certaine time so as proces may bee made upon such Supers and Debts as are or shall bee depending in the same accompts upon any person or persons So as for default of their delivering in of any the said accompts in due time any the said Supers or Debts shall be afterwards required and recovered against the purchasers of the Lands of any such Debtor or Debtors by whom the said Supers or Debts were so due or against their Sureties which might have been recovered against the said Debtors themselves if the same accompts had been delivered in due time that such Officer or Officers so making default in delivering of the said accompts in due time shall and may for their neglect therein being thereof lawfully convicted be subject to discharge the purchasers of the said Debtors lands and their suerties against the King his Heires and Successors and to satisfie and pay what the said principall Debtors
should have satisfied and paid in case the said Accompts had beene delivered in due time And for that it is found by experience that the Vnder-Sheriffe that takes upon him the execution of the whole Office both in attending at the Assizes Sessions and upon other Courts of Iustice returning of Iuries and other service of the Country betweene party and party cannot in any such due time as he ought looke into and attend the levying of the Kings Rents and other the Debts and Duties sent forth in proces to Sheriffes by severall Writs of Distringas Fieri facias Capias and Extent out of the two Remembrancers Offices and by the Summons of the Pipe and Greenwax some such like Act may bee passed in Parliament for the better expediting of the Kings service that it may be lawfull to and for such person or persons of ability and sufficiency as shall be hereafter appointed by the Sheriffe of every County for whom he will answer to be his Deputy or Clerke for the leavying of the Kings Rents and other his Debts and Duties as shall be so sent out by the said Summons and for executing all such Writs out of both the Offices of the said Remembrancers as aforesaid and for no other businesse may continue in the said Office yeare after yeare so long as hee shall be approved of and allowed by the said Sheriffes as aforesaid without incurring any of the penalties and forfeitures provided by the Lawes against such Vnder-Sheriff or Sheriffes Clerk as shall remaine in his Office above one yeare Stat. anno 23. H. 6. And that notwithstanding any former Act Statute or Ordinance to the contrary heretofore made Neverthelesse that such Vnder-Sheriff Deputy-Sheriffe or Sheriffs Clerk shall not thereby be exempted from taking any such oaths nor from any other penalties which by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme are to be taken or undergone by them Stat anno 27. Eliz. 12. And in regard all the Sheriffes of this Kingdome doe finde themselves much grieved and damnified by reason of the foresaid Statute made in the seven and twentieth year of the reigne of K. Ed. 1. by force whereof they are to answer for al such issues by them returned against any person or persons their mainpernors or pledges which shall be Nichelled or prove to be illeviable especially in the case of Writs of Distring sent out of the Excheq for the homages other services of the Kings Tenants that some consideration may be taken of the said ancient Statute in case of the said Sheriffs so farre forth as may stand with Justice and the preservation of his Majesties said Rights and Services And that in further ease of Sheriffs there may be a review of the decree lately procured by the parcell makers for Sheriffs and Lords of Liberties to accompt before them for Felons Goods and other Escheats c. the same being found very grievous and burthensome to the said Sheriftes and other his Majesties Subjects without any profit to the King And in regard diverse ancient Farmes and Rents now in charge in the Pipe and before his Majesties Auditors for the revenue and in the Court of the Dutchy of Lancaster which by reason of sundry alienations of the lands and hereditaments out of which the same are issuing and for divers other causes are now at this day very hard and difficult to be levied by reason whereof many of them are like to bee utterly lost unlesse they may by some good and lawfull wayes and meanes be revived and more of them like to be lost hereafter That for remedy herein a perfect survey may bee made of all his Majesties Honors Manors Lands Tenements Rents and Heredaitments in every Shire Hundred and what particular Rents and services either by way of Fee Farme or otherwise in perpetuity or for terme of life or years are answered for the same And that inquisition be made for and concerning all the dispersed Rents which are within the collection of the Bayliffes or Collectors thereof and of all other Rents within the collection of Sheriffes or Receivors generall and of what lands or other hereditaments the same are particularly issuing and where the said lands and hereditaments doe lye and in whose possession they now are and when and how to be paid And that all good and lawfull wayes and meanes may be used as well by the view of ancient Records Inquisitions where any such are to be found as otherwise for reviving of all decayed Rents belonging to the Crowne And after the making of such surveies that some fit course may be devised for the better securing of all the said petty and dispersed Rents in the charge of the said Bailiffes and Collectors of the same from further decay and for easing the King from the great charge and hazard he now undergoes in the collecting thereof Jtem that the state of the Kings Castles and Houses may be surveyed all decaied Castles and Houses not useful for further service if it shall be so thought fit converted to the best profit and the Fees for the keeping thereof discharged And whether the like survey may not be made of all the Forrests Parkes Chaces and Warrens not as yet dissaforested or disparked except such as his Majesty shall reserve for his royall disport and the waste number of them to be converted to the best profit by the yeare and to be letten as other lands are and with like condition saving to every man a recompence for such interest as he hath And that the Farmes of the Vlnages and Gaugers be surveied that it may be knowne what Rent is fit to be set upon them when the terme expireth Many other parcells there are of the ancient Revenues being flowers of the Crowne as the Goods and Chattels of Felones Fugitives and Outlawed persons the petty Fines and Amerciaments anciently set and affeered in the higher Courts upon the Plantiffes and Defendants pro falso clamore quia non est prosecut c. and the like whereof little or no profit hath of late beene made to the Crowne according to the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome by reason whereof divers persons finding they may doe it with such impunity have beene incouraged to violate the Lawes and to set on foot and maintaine sundry unjust and vexatious suits c. For remedy whereof this may also be taken into consideration and some life given to those Lawes in a moderate way so farre forth as may stand with his Majesties ancient Rights the Justice of the Kingdome and the discouragement of such offendors for time to come And whereas there remains at this day a great bulke of Arrerages and Debts as well in the Exchequer as in the Court of Wards and Liveries and in the Court of the Dutchy of Lancaster a great part whereof is conceived to be good as having beene suffered to sleep through the connivence or negligence of some of the Kings Officers other part