Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 3.djvu/107

A.D. 1605. V. And be it further enacted, That if any such Plaintiff or Creditor, Defendant or Debtor, after Warning given to him or them, in Manner and Form before in this Act mentioned, by the said Officer of the said Court of Requests, shall, without some just or reasonable Cause of Excuse, refuse to appear in the the said Court before the said Commissioners, or shall not perform such Order as the said Commissioners, or any three or more of them, shall set down for or concerning such Debts, as aforesaid, that then it shall be lawful for the Officer of the said Court or any other of the Serjeants at Mace of the said City, by Order of the said Commissioners, or any three or more of them, to commit such Party or Parties to Prison, into one of the Counters of the said City, there to remain until he or they shall perform the Order of the said Commissioners in that Behalf.

VI. Provided always, That this Act, or any Thing therein contained, shall not extend to any Debt for any Rent upon any Lease of Lands or Tenements, or any other real Contracts, nor to any other Debt that shall arise by reason of any Cause concerning  or any Thing concerning or properly belonging to the Ecclesiastical Court, albeit the same shall be under forty Shillings; any Thing before contained to the contrary in any wife notwithstanding.

VII. And be it enabled by the Authority aforesaid. That the said Act made in the firct Year of the King's Majesty's Reign, be from the End of this Session of Parliament, for and concerning any Order to be made in the said Court of Requests after the End of this Session of Parliament, utterly repealed.

'HERE AS in the Parliament holden at Westminster in the fourteenth Year of the Reign of our late Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth, one Act, intituled, An Act to reform the excessive Length of Kersies was made, intending thereby to have restrained them to the Length of eighteen Yards, or under; (2) immediately upon the making of which Act by reason of the said Law, it hath sithence fallen out, many Clothing Towns, as well within the County of Southampton as in divers other Counties within this Realm of England who were then in Trade with Merchant-Strangers and others using the Trade of Transporting of Kersies by Way of Merchandize beyond the Seas, grew suddenly out of Trade and in great Decay, for that the said Merchants would no longer buy of the Clothiers any of their said Kersies wanting their old accustomed Measure of four and twenty Yards or thereabouts, they the said Merchants being by the like Custom and Usage in Trade with other Merchants for the said Kersies of the said Measure and Length, to the great Impoverishment and Ruin of divers antient Towns, and of thousands of poor people who were wont by them to be set on work and maintained, and to the great Loss of our said Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth, and of the King's Majesty that now is, in their Customs and Subsidies, which in and by the said former Venting and Trading of the said Kersies, did and would continually accrue and grow due for the same:'

II. Be it therefore enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament, That the said Act of the fourteenth Year of the Reign of our said late Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth, intituled, 'An Act to reform the excessive Length of Kersies,' be from henceforth clearly and absolutely repealed.

III. Provided always, and be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament, That Kersies called The Length and ordinary Kersies, shiall not exceed the Length of four and twenty Yards to be measured by the Yard and Inch; (2) and that every ordinary Kersie of the Length of four and twenty Yards aforesaid, being well scoured, thicked, milled, dressed and fully dried, shall weigh eight and twenty Pounds and one Half Pound at the least: (3) And that Kersies called Sorting-Kersies, shall not exceed the Length aforesaid, and that every Sorting-Kersie of the Length of four and, twenty such Yards as aforesaid, being well scoured, thicked, milled, dressed, and fully dried, shall weigh thirty-two Pounds and one Half Pound at the least: (4) And that every Kersie of a shorter Length than four and twenty such Yards as aforesaid, shall weigh proportionably to the aforesaid Weight, that is to say, every ordinary Kersie after the Rate of one Pound and three Ounces Weight for every Yard that the same shall contain in Length, and every Sorting-Kersie after the Rate of one Pound three Ounces and an Half Ounce in Weight, for every Yard that the same shall contain in Length.

IV And if it happen that any Kersie or Kersies hereafter to be made shall either exceed the said Length of four and twenty such Yards, as aforesaid, or shall not weigh according to the respective Rates and Proportions aforesaid, then every Person or Persons that shall make, or cause the same to be made for Sale, shall forfeit and lose for every Yard of such Kersies, exceeding the Length of four and twenty such said Yards, the sum of five Shillings only, and no more: (2) And for every Pound weight that shall be wanting according to the Proportions before respectively limited, shall forfeit two Shillings for every Pound, for exceeding and no more; any former Laws or Statutes limiting or appointing any other or greater Penalty or Forfeiture to the contrary thereof in any wife notwithstanding; (3) the one Moiety of the said Sums, Penalties and Forfeitures to be to the King's Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, and the other Moiety to him or them that will sue for the fame in any of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, by Bill, Plaint, or Information, wherein no Essoin, Protection or Wager of Law shall be allowed or admitted.

V.Provided further, and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid. That every Person and Persons selling or trading in any such Kersie or Kersies, shall pay unto the King's Majesty for every Piece of Kersie containing four and twenty Yards, as much in Custom and Subsidy, rateably, as such Person or Persons should and ought to pay unto his Majesty for one Piece and a third Part of a Piece containing eighteen Yards. 5 & 6 Ed. 6. c. 6. CAP.