Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/59

Rh offenders, and were to certify outlawries and attainders to the officers of the Marches, who were to convey the offenders into England, The liberties, laws, and privileges of the Lords Marchers were to be preserved. Offences committed in Merionethshire were to be tried before the King's Justices of in Carnarvonshire and Anglesey (repealed in 1566); and the officers of all the Lordships Marchers were required to assist in securing culprits who escaped from one Lordship to another. The Lords Marchers had pretended to use a custom and privilege that none of the King's ministers and subjects could enter to pursue and apprehend such offenders.

A later Act of 1534 (26 8, c. 11) punished  attempting any assaults or affrays upon the inhabitants of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Shropshire. The inhabitants of these counties had been beaten, maimed, grievously wounded, and sometimes murdered for attempting to pursue felons into or the Marches, so a penalty was imposed of one year's imprisonment over and above the punishment inflicted in the ordinary course of law.

The last Act of 1534 (26  8, c. 12) was "An Act for purgation of convicts in " ordering that  clerks convicted of petty treason, murder and other offences were to give surety before two Justices of the county where the ordinary's prison was situated, or else of the adjoining county. By a previous Act (23 8, c. 1) the ancient privilege of "benefit of clergy" had been taken away in England from criminals and clerks convict, who were thereafter required to provide sureties for good behaviour before two Justices of the Peace. Inasmuch as there were no Justices of the Peace of the quorum at this time in, clerks in holy orders who were convicted were required to give such sureties in before two Justices of the Shire.

By the several statutes of 1534, the King aimed at removing the trials of serious crimes from the jurisdictions of