Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/429

 1920 THE COURT OF STAR CHAMBER 421 Proceedings in the Court of Star Chamber Stonor v. Dormer and others, 1491 After the Stonor Letters and Papers, which I edited lately for the Camden Series of the Royal Historical Society, had been passed for the press I discovered amongst the Star Chamber Pro- ceedings in the Public Record Office (Henry VII, i. 45) the record of a case brought by Sir William Stonor in October 1491 against one Thomas Dormer and others concerning a riotous assembly at Nusselyng (Nutshalling or Nursling) in Hampshire. The case does not fall within the period covered by the letters, but is of value for explaining some matters referred to in them. Apart from this these Star Chamber Proceedings have a considerable interest of their own. Mr. Leadam, in his Select Cases in the Star Chamber, states that the proceedings were by bill and answer, after which the court administered interrogatories to the accused party, whom they examined upon oath. Depositions were then taken from competent witnesses. The answer followed upon the issue of letters of privy seal (as here) or of a writ. The first instance of the terms of an ' emanarunt ' amongst the cases printed by Mr. Leadam is in 1493 — Couper v. Gervaux ; the first deposition by a defendant is in the same year — Culford V. Wotton ; and the first depositions by witnesses appear in 1496 — Madeley v. Fitzherbert. In Stonor v. Dormer we get, besides the bill and answer, the ' emanarunt ', the examination of the defendants, the depositions of witnesses, and articles to be proved on behalf of Sir William Stonor, the last being imper- fect. The record of the proceedings is thus unusually full for so early a date. Out of forty-one cases for the reign of Henry VII given by Mr. Leadam the depositions are preserved in only six. The proceedings in Stonor v. Dormer illustrate how much more important and interesting the depositions are Hkely to prove than the bill and p-nswer. The bill and answer give us no more than ex parte allegations as to what had occurred. In the repUes to the interrogatories administered to Dormer and his principal co-defendant, John Welles, we get the significant admission that Sir Robert Cheyny, their confederate, came with thirty armed men to NursHng. But it is only in the depositions of the witnesses that we get at the true facts of the case. Unfortunately the parch- ment on which the depositions are written has suffered much from damp and rubbing and in great part can only be deciphered with difficulty. I have been able nevertheless to restore almost all that is of importance, though a few details which promised to be of interest are irretrievably lost.^
 * All the right-hand side of the first skin could only be deciphered word by word ;