rections from the lord of this isle for, or concerning the same *.

Oath.

Ir shall not be lawful for the ecclesiastical courts to tender, or administer unto any person, the oath commonly called the oath ex officio, or any other oath whereby such person may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse, or to purge himself of any criminal matter, whereby he may be liable to any censure or punishment: Provided that this shall not hinder the said courts from giving any oath to any person who shall come voluntarily, to clear his reputation with lawful compurgators as accustomed t.

Officers.

WHOSOEVER shall speak or accuse any scandalous. speeches against any chief officer of the island, spiritual or temporal, or any of the twenty-four keys, touching their oaths, or the state and government, or any other scandalous speeches which might tend to the defamation of their offices and places, and be not able to prove it, shall be fined for every time so offending, in ten pounds, and their ears to be cut off for punishment besidest.

Outlawry.

any person be indicted of felony, he shall be pro

* A. T. 1697. + A. T. 1737.

A. T. 1601.

claimed and cried throughout the six sheadings, and at the Tynwald; and the fourth court to be called by the moar of Glanfaba: And if any such persons so called, answer not, then upon the record of the six moars then present, having with them two witnesses, that they were called in the six sheadings, and appeared not, thereby upon proclamation to be outlawed, and shall not be inlawed without the lord's special grace and pardon. And if any man be foreigned in the lord's court, or any of the baron's courts, for death, or otherwise to for swear the land, he shall never come into the land again, without the lord's special grace and pardon: And whoever relieves or receives any person after that he is outlawed and foreigned, as it is recited, forfeiteth body and goods to the lord's pleasure: and if the bishop or abbot, or any other baron, receive an outlaw, without the lord's special grace and pardon, he forfeiteth his temporalty to the lord *.

Parish Clerk.

EVERY parish hath the liberty to chuse their own clerk; but the ordinary must accept, authorise and allow of him, to be sufficient and able for that office; and in every time of visitation and other business, the parish to send for the clerk, and the clerk to go to the priest, and wait on him.

The clerk's standing wages is a groat out of every plough, if the plough plows but three furrows within the year; and from those that have no ploughs, but keep smoak, a penny, annually.

The clerk shall have for every one that departeth this life, able to pay a whole corpse-present, one shilling and nine pence, or else his apparel, as was used in old

* Ord. 1422.

times. And for a woman, one shilling and fivepence, or else such duties as were used in old time. And for the poor, all debts being paid, to be reasonably agreed withal.

The clerk's silver, on the south side, is elevenpence, and the head penny of the which twelvepence, the cuvate hath sevenpence, the parish clerk threepence, and the parson's clerk twopence; and upon the north side fifteenpence. And in case a poor person depart, and there is not wherewithal to pay the clerk's silver, then the clerk shall have no duty, but the duty to be sold to pay the head penny and clerk's silver. And if any thing want, the next of kin to make it good, because if the party were wealthy, and made no will, they should be

his executors *.

Whereas it is a complaint, that the lord of the island makes clerks of the parishes by his special grants, whereas the parishioners pay the clerk his dues, his lordship is graciously pleased that the parishioners, and parson or vicar of the parish shall have the nomination of the clerk, and the bishop to have the allowance or approbation of him for his sufficiency, and ability to perform the place t.

Pinfold, or Pound.

WHOEVER taketh any man's goods, and bringeth them to the pinfold, he shall send notice to him that owneth the beasts, to loose them: And the party that taketh the said goods must send to the owner, with convenient speed, knowing the owner; and the owner not being known, to be called at the parish church, on the next Sunday, or at the next market. If that then he will not do as aforesaid, to give the goods water once + A. T. 1643.

Spir. Cust. Laws.

a day; and if they die, the owner can have no amends, for they are lost in his own default.

A halfpenny per foot for beasts impounded, to go one half to the lord, and the other half to the pin

der*.

The goods or cattle of any person trespassing on another man's ground, may be taken to the pinfold in the same parish, by the owner of the said ground, his family or servants giving the owner of such goods or cattle sufficient warning of the impounding thereof, to the intent that he may relieve the same t.

For all live goods impounded the owner is, before releasement, to pay a halfpenny per foot to the pinder or warden (whose fees are one half thereof,) and he is to account for the same every year at the debet court, that the lord's part thereof may be estreated.

The pinfolds in every parish are to be kept in repair at all times of the year, or in default thereof, the parishioners to be fined as heretofore accustomed; and the same to be presented by the great inquest, upon the proof or complaint of the pinder, or other lawful proof or complaint made; and the course of repairing the pinfold is to be according to the rule of repairing churchyards, which is done by the tenants of every treen, or division of the parish, doing their particular proportion. And it is ordered, that sufficient pinders or wardens, shall be nominated and sworn to deal truly therein; and to give a true account of the lord's fee, every year, and the oath to be administered by the deemsters, or by the coroner or lockman, before the four members of the great inquest of the parish: And in case the pinder be negligent in his office, he is to be fined and punished, and removed from his office, and another placed in his stead, as aforesaid; whose election is to be by the captain and the four of the great inquest of the parish, as they shall find just cause for his

Temp. Cust. Laws, 1577.

+ Ordinance, 1583.

honesty and ability, and convenient living near the pinfold. And in respect that one pinfold in a parish is too few, every parish is at liberty to erect another at their own charges, which is to be used in the same manner as the ancient pinfold, to all intents and purposes *.

It shall be lawful for the governor, at his discretion, upon application made to him by the farmers or tenants of any of the treens, within the several parishes, to give licence to any, or as many of them as he shall think fit, to erect, at their own charges, one pinfold, in the most commodious place in the said treen, provided that yearly at the sheading court, to be held for that parish, after Michaelmas, a sufficient pinder be sworn; and every such licence is to be first enrolled in the comptroller's office t.

Prison.

If any person shall be found, and lawfully convicted of receiving any malefactor, aiding and assisting to break, or make his escape out of gaol, such person or persons so offending, shall forfeit the sum of twenty pounds to the lord of this isle: And whosoever shall be found and convicted of being any way active in conveying and carrying any malefactor off the island, or aiding and assisting him in his escape, agreeing with a vessel, carring messages, or the like, such offender or offenders shall be fined in any sum, not exceeding ten pounds, to the lord, besides three months imprisonment: And whosoever shall rescue any person imprisoned, or in execution for debt, or be hereafter found, directly or indirectly, concerned in aiding or assisting any debtor to escape out of gaol, or to get off the island, or in privately conveying or carrying off any person in+ A.T. 1705.

* A. T. 1665.