Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 309

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Volume 2, Page 309

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[001] and afterwards one for them all in common. The form of the special writ shall be
[002] this:

Of the oath the justices shall swear when they have received the office of judge.

[004] ¹The oath shall be this. Each will swear, one after the other, that in the counties
[005] into which they are to travel they will do right justice to the best of their ability
[006] to rich and poor alike, and that they will observe the assise according to the articles
[007] set out, to be expounded below,² and that they will execute all that is right and
[008] just in matters pertaining to the crown of the lord king. And after his oath let
[009] each of them be instructed to promote, to the best of his ability, the advantage of
[010] the lord king.

Writ close for one of the justices.

[012] ³‘The king to his trusty and well-beloved N., greeting. Know that we have appointed
[013] you our justice, together with our trusty and well-beloved A. B. [and] C.,
[014] to travel through such a county N. (or ‘such counties’) for all assises and pleas,
[015] those of our crown as well as others, as is more fully set forth in our writ of general
[016] summons directed to you.⁴ Therefore we order you, urging you in the loyalty by
[017] which you are bound to us, that you, together with your companions aforesaid,
[018] faithfully and diligently apply yourself to the execution of these matters so that
[019] we ought deservedly to commend both your loyalty and your diligence in this
[020] matter. Witness etc.’ And let a writ in this same form issue for each of them
[021] separately.

A writ patent for all the justices together, which shall be their warrant and be read publicly in the county.

[023] ⁵‘The king to his trusty and well-beloved A. B. C. [and] D., greeting. Know that
[024] we have appointed you our justices to travel throughout such a county for all
[025] pleas and assises, both pleas of the crown and others, which have arisen since
[026] our justices last travelled in that county, and also for those summoned and
[027] adjourned and not completed before our justices at Westminster, or before our
[028] justices who last travelled in that same county for all pleas, or for the taking of
[029] assises of novel disseisin, mortdancestor and gaol deliveries only, so that all those
[030] assises and pleas be before you in the same state in which they remained by our
[031] command, or by our itinerant justices aforesaid or by our justices of the bench.
[032] We have ordered our sheriff of the county of N. that at a time and place which you
[033] shall make known to him he cause the summonses to be made and the attachments
[034] to come before you, with the writs of the assises and pleas aforesaid. And so we
[035] charge you, urging you in the loyalty by which you are bound to us, that to the
[036] faithful execution of these matters etc. (as above).’

Notes

1. See n. 17 supra 308

2. Infra 329

3. Rot. Litt. Cl., ii, 151-2 (1226)

4. ‘tam corone nostre quam aliis que emerserunt postquam iusticiarii nostri ultimo itineraverunt ... placitorum predictorum’: as below lines 25-36

5. Rot. Litt. Cl., ii, 151-2 (1226); Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1232-47, 76 (1234)