the first who bore that title*; but John de Langton had been called "Custos Rotulorum Cancellariæ Domini Regis." † Adam de Osgodebey is expressly stated to have filled the office in the same reign, and as there were clerks in the Chancery from the most remote antiquity to assist the Chancellor, who were afterwards denominated " Masters in Chancery," I have little doubt that the senior or chief of them had for ages before had the particular care of the records of the Court, and being so often intrusted with the custody of the Seal in the Chancellor's absence, had gradually been permitted to act as his deputy. CHAP. XII. A. D. 1327. Towards the conclusion of this reign, under Lord Chan- Complaints in parliacellor Baldock, there were heavy complaints in parliament of ment of the the delays of justice, and that when petitions for redress were Court of presented to parliament, they were sometimes referred to the King and sometimes to the Chancellor, without any thing being ever done upon them. ‡ Chancery. court in! From petitions and answers lately discovered, it appears Jurisdicthat during this reign the jurisdiction of the Court of Chan- tion of the cery was considerably extended, and the "Consuetudo Can- reign of cellaria" is often familiarly mentioned. We find petitions Edward II. referred to the Chancellor in his Court, either separately or in conjunction with the King's Justices or the King's Serjeants-on disputes respecting the wardship of infants, partition, dower, rent-charges, tithes, and goods of felons. The Chancellor was in full possession of his jurisdiction over charities, and he superintended the conduct of coroners. Mere wrongs, such as malicious prosecutions and trespasses to personal property, are sometimes the subject of proceedings before him; but I apprehend that those were cases where, from powerful combinations and confederacies, redress could not be obtained in the courts of common law. There was now and during some succeeding reigns the exercise of a prerogative of the Crown vested in the Court of • Reeve's Hist. of the Law, vol. ii. p. 362. † See Discourse on Office of M. R. Et auxint Sire firent vos liges gentz que par la ou ils ont hote leur avant lour petitions au diverses parliamentz des diverses grievances et les unes sont ajournes devant le Roi, et les autres devant le Chancellier dount nul issue n'est fait q'il plaise a vautre haute seignurie comander remedie. Resp. Il plest au Roi. Par. Rol. 19 Ed. 2. i. 430. CHAP. XII. ** Chancery, which we should have expected to find reserved for the King's executive government, viz. the power of Letters of granting letters of marque and reprisals against the subjects marque and of a foreign state that refused to render justice to the subjects reprisals granted by of the Crown of England. Thus, in 2 Edward II., certain Chancellor. English merchants plundered by Flemish pirates, not obtaining redress from the Earl of Flanders, they petitioned the King, and they were referred by him to the Court of Chancery, there to pursue their remedy as was accustomed in similar cases. Again, in the 8th year of this reign, Adam le Clerk, having complained that his ship and merchandise had been captured and carried into the town of Perth in Scotland, it is ordered that he should apply to the Chancellor, and that justice should be done to him according to the custom of the Chancery. ‡ Year Now begins the series of reports of cases decided in the superior courts, the grand repertory of law in England; but the "Year Books" are now rather curious for their antiquity than valuable for their contents, being chiefly the notes taken by the reporters in Court, without being properly digested or revised. In the 9th year of the King, while Sandale was Chancellor, was passed a statute, still acted upon, by which it was enacted that Sheriffs who were formally chosen by the freeholders, should be assigned by the Chancellor and Judges, and the power of appointing them was vested in the Crown. § At the close of the reign, at the Parliament held under Lord Chancellor Baldock, the statute "De Prerogativa Regis" was passed, giving to the King the profits of the lands of idiots, the probable foundation of the Lord Chancellor's jurisdiction in lunacy under the royal sign-manual. The only law book imputed to this reign is the " Mirror of It appears from Grotius and Puffendorf, that down to their time letters of reprisal were considered rather in the nature of a private remedy, and did not by any means amount to war between two nations. The capture was rather in the nature of a security to obtain justice. + Resp. "Adeant Cancellariam et perquirant remedium sicut consuevit fieri in consimilibus casibus, secundum formam petitionis." Resp. Sequatur in Cancell, et ostendat processum inde habitum et literas testimon. si quas habeat de defen. exhibitionis justitiæ et tunc sequatur secundum processum, &c., et fiat ei justitia secundum consuetudinem Cancellariæ." § 9 Ed. 2. stat. 2. 17 Ed. 2. c. 9. XII. Justices," which, though often quoted by Lord Coke, is a СНАР. wretched compilation, and shows an increasing degeneracy among English juridical writers. The Chancellors were still all churchmen, and from this order only could good lawyers hitherto be selected; but there was now rising up a class of laymen who, devoting themselves to the study of the municipal law of England, and educated at the Hostels or Inns of Court (of which Lincoln's Inn then was, and ever has continued to be, the most eminent*,) were attracting public consideration and confidence, and from among whom, in the succeeding reign, Chancellors were chosen, to the great content of the nation. The Society of Lincoln's Inn was founded in the commencement of this reign, under the patronage of William Earl of Lincoln, who, for the accommodation of the members, gave up to them his hostel, which he held under the Bishops of Chichester. Establish ment of Inns of Court, CHAPTER XIII. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL FROM THE XIII. Jan. 25. 1327. John de Hotham again CHAP. THE Parliament which continued irregularly to sit under writs issued in the name of Edward II., commenced the new reign by the appointment of a council of regency, consisting of twelve persons-five prelates and seven temporal peerswith the Earl of Lancaster as President or Protector;-and John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely, was called from his retreat to be made Chancellor. But he only consented to hold the office till a settlement of the kingdom should take place; and he finally resigned it on the 1st of March following. Chancellor. His death and character. HENRY In this interval acts of parliament were passed indemnifying the Queen and her partisans for all they had done, and enabling them to carry on the government in the name of the young King. As yet all went smoothly, for he was not of competent age to understand the wrongs done to his father, his mother's shame, or the usurpation of his own rights. Hotham joyfully returned to his diocese, where he occupied himself in repairing and ornamenting the cathedral, till he was struck with the palsy. After being bed-ridden two years, he died in 1336. He is said to have been pious, and naturally shrewd, though of little knowledge acquired from books. He is gratefully remembered by his successors in the see of Ely for the princely munificence with which he enriched it. Till the 12th of May the Great Seal remained in the DE BURG- keeping of Henry de Clyff, Master of the Rolls; and on that Chancellor. day it was delivered to HENRY DE BURGHERSH, or BUR HERSH, XIII. WASH, as Chancellor.* He was of noble birth, and nephew CHAP. of Bartholomew de Badislimer, Baron of Leeds, a man of great power and fame in the reign of Edward II. Having A.D. 1327. been educated at Oxford, -in 1320, while yet a young man, he obtained, through his uncle's interest, the rich bishopric of Lincoln. He soon after quarrelled with the King, and the temporalities of his see were sequestered. They were restored in 1324, and he was again taken into favour at court, But he subsequently took the Queen's part against her husband, and was active in bringing about the ruin of this unhappy prince. Along with the other chief conspirators, he was promoted at the commencement of the new reign, and enjoyed power till the young King discovered their plots and avenged the memory of his father. Seal. The Great Seal of Edward II., which had likewise been New Great that of Edward I., continued to be used till the 5th day of October, 1327, when a new Great Seal, with the effigies and style of Edward III., was put into the hands of the Chancellor.† The business of the parliament being finished, he accompanied the Queen-mother to Berwick. During his absence the Seal was left with the Master of the Rolls, and it was restored to him on his return to court. He went abroad with the King on the 26th of May, 1329, and returned on the 11th of June following, still confident of continuing prosperity. But the termination of his official career was at hand. Temporary Mortimer, the paramour of Isabella, had quarrelled with the ascendancy Earl of Lancaster and the Princes of the blood, and had timer. of Mor * Rot. Cl. 2 Ed. 3. m. 26. Rot. Cl. 1 Ed. 3. m. 11. "When the King dies, the Great Seal of the last King continues the Great Seal of England till another be made and delivered. Edward III., who began his reign 25th January, on the 3d of October following directed a proclamation to all the sheriffs of England, signifying that he had made a new Great Seal, sent them an impression of the new seal in wax, and commanded them, after the 4th of October, to receive no writs but under the new Seal. On the 4th of October, being Sunday, the Bishop of Ely, Chancellor, producing the new Seal, declares the King's pleasure that it should be from thenceforth used. The Monday after the old Seal is broken, præcipiente rege, and the pieces delivered to the SPIGURNEL."—1 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, 176. The Spigurnel was an officer whose place was to seal the King's writs. - Camb. Rem. 26. |