Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/245

Rh ſheriffs, conſtables, coroners, or other our bailiffs, ſhall hold the pleas of our crown.

counties, hundreds, wapentakes and tithings, ſhall be at the antient farms without being raiſed, except our own demeſne mannors.

any that holds us a lay-fee die, and our ſheriffs, or other our bailiffs ſhew our letters patents of ſummons for a debt which the deceaſed owed to us, our ſheriff or bailiff may well attach and inventory the goods of the dead which ſhall be found upon his lay-fee, to the value of the debt which the deceaſed owed to us, by the view of lawful men, yet ſo as nothing be removed till ſuch time as the debt, which ſhall be found to be due to us, be paid; and the reſidue ſhall go to the executors to perform the teſtament of the dead; and if nothing be owing to us, all his goods ſhall go to the uſe of the dead, ſaving to his wife and children their reaſonable parts.

any freeman die inteſtate, his goods ſhall be divided by the hands of his near kindred and friends