Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/158

26 partition of the same inheritance shall be made as it was wont to be made; with this exception, that bastards from henceforth shall not inherit, and also shall not have portions with the lawful heirs nor without the lawful heirs; and if it happen that any inheritance should hereafter upon the failure of heir male descend unto females, the lawful heirs of their ancestor last seised thereof, We Will of our especial Grace that the same women shall have their portions thereof to be assigned them in our Court, although this be contrary to the custom of Wales before used.

XIV.

And whereas the people of Wales have besought us that we would grant unto them, that concerning their possessions immovable, as lands and tenements, the truth may be tried by good and lawful men of the neighbourhood, chosen by consent of parties; and concerning things movable, as of contracts, debts, sureties, covenants, trespasses, chattels, and all other movables of the same sort, they may use the Welsh Law whereto they have been accustomed; which was this: that, if a man complain of another upon contracts or things done in such a place that the plaintiffs case may be proved by those who saw and heard it, when the plaintiff shall establish his case by those witnesses whose testimony cannot be disproved, then he ought to recover the thing in demand, and the adverse party be condemned; and that in other cases which cannot be proved by persons who saw and heard, the defendant should be put to his purgation, sometimes with a greater number, sometimes with less, according to the quality and quantity of the matter or Deed: and that in theft, if one be taken with the mainour, he shall not be admitted to purgation, but be holden for convict: We, for the common peace and quiet of our aforesaid people of our land of Wales, do grant the premises unto them: yet so that they hold not place in thefts, larcenies, burnings, murders, manslaughters and manifest and notorious robberies, nor do by any means extend unto these; wherein we will that they shall use the Laws of England, as is before declared.

And therefore we command you that from henceforth you do steadfastly observe the premises in all things. So notwithstanding that whensoever and wheresoever, and as often as it shall be our pleasure, we may declare, interpret, enlarge, or diminish the