Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/223

 within the parishes or townships aforesaid, such sum and sums of money and costs as should be so ordered and decreed."

One clause of the act stated that if any person or persons affronted, insulted, or abused, all or any of the commissioners, the clerk, or officers of the court, either during the sitting or in going to or returning from the same, or interrupted the proceedings, or obstructed the clerk or sergeant in the lawful execution of their different offices, he, she, or they should be brought before a justice of the peace, who was hereby empowered to inflict on conviction a fine of not more than 40s., and not less than 5s. The jurisdiction of the court did not extend to any debt or rent upon any lease or contract, where the title of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments came in question; nor to any debt arising from any last will or testament, or matrimony, or anything properly belonging to the ecclesiastical courts; nor to any debt from any horse-race, cock-match, wager, or any kind of gaming or play; nor from any forfeiture upon any penal statute or bye-law; nor did it extend to any debt whatsoever whereof there had not been contract, acknowledgment, undertaking, or promise to pay within six years from the date of the summons, although any of the above mentioned debts should not amount to forty shillings. No attorney or solicitor was allowed to appear before the commissioners as attorney or advocate on behalf of either plaintiff or defendant, or to speak on any cause or matter before the court in which he was not himself a party or witness, under a penalty of five pounds for each offence. It was further enacted "that no action or suit for any debt not amounting to the sum of forty shillings, and recoverable by virtue of this act in the said Court of Requests, should be brought against any person or persons, residing or inhabiting within the jurisdiction thereof, in any of the king's courts at Westminster, or any other court whatsoever, or elsewhere, out of the said Court of Requests, and no suit which had been commenced in the said Court of Requests in pursuance of this act, nor any proceedings therein, should or might be removed to any superior court, but the judgments, decrees, and proceedings of the said court should be final and conclusive to all intents and purposes; provided always, that nothing in this act should extend, or be construed to extend, to prevent any person from suing for small