Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/109

 1920 MERCHANTS' COURTS AT WINCHESTER 101 R. Barbot, armiger, of the county of Southampton, against J. Carter, ' clericus ', come into the court of piepowder ? It is conceivable that in all these cases one of the parties may at the time have been actually in Winchester, but another explanation is possible, namely that the court was a con- venient and quick method of obtaining justice that was preferred to the city court, or to the county courts. The occasional occur- rence of the phrase ' petit communem curiam ', especially in the roll of 11 Henry VI, seems to imply that cases were heard in the court of piepowder which might equally have been taken to the city court. The two courts do not differ in composition ; the magistrates of both are the mayor and baihffs, but the city court met once a week, usually on Friday, the court of piepowder any day on which it was wanted ; in the city courts the adjournments were frequent and tedious, sometimes as many as ten, once even fifteen ; in the court of piepowder they are never more than six, with the exception mentioned later, and these often for a few hours. It must have been the more popular court ; in 7 Henry VI it deals with 158 cases, in 13 Edward IV the city court deals with 125. In a town which had a charter the burgesses had the right of answering pleas only in their own courts. The rolls, as I have said, only exceptionally give the place of abode of litigants ; though citizens of Winchester are commonly plaintiffs in the court of piepowder I can only find four in which they are defendants. In one of these (7 Henry VI) J. Spynas is ' civis ' but also ' fugitivus ', i. e. he had absconded ; in another (11 Henry VI) J. Heer of Winchester, mercator, is in prison ; in a third (7 Henry VI) Peter de la Ryke is described as of Winchester, a tavemer, but a few lines above a R. de Ryke is described as Ducheman, and Peter also may have been an alien ; in the fourth (5 Henry VI) J. Edwarde of Winchester is hosteler de la Chekere, and also described as ' heliare ' and ' mercator '. It would seem, therefore, that the citizens of Winchester in ordinary cases were prosecuted only in the city court. On the other hand, the cases of which I have quoted examples where the nature of the business and the status of the litigants is inconsistent with that of travelling merchants, are sufficiently numerous to justify the belief that the court was used for the decision of business that might have gone to the county courts. It is of course possible that in all the cases I have cited one of the parties may have been in Winchester, but in some, for example where the bailiffs of Andover prosecuted, it certainly is not probable. As for the procedure, the plaintiff gives security that he will prosecute ; the ' plegius de prosequendo ' in the earlier rolls is given with Christian and surname, later he is usually one of the practising attorneys and is generally described by his initials