Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/356

 [WIRECESTRESCIRE] fo. 172. In the city of Worcester {Wirecestre), king Edward used to have this customary due {consuetudineni). When the coinage {moneta) was changed, each moneyer gave twenty shillings at London on receiving the dies of the money. When the county paid geld, the city was reckoned at {se adquietabat pro) 15 hides. From the said city the King himself used to have ten pounds and earl Eadwine eight pounds. The King took no other due there except the charge {cemum) on the houses according to the liability of each. King William has now in demesne both the King's share and the Earl's share. For this the sheriff renders twenty-three pounds and five shillings by weight, for the city ; and for the demesne manors of the King he renders a hundred and twenty-three pounds and four shillings by weight. For the county he renders seventeen pounds by weight ; and he further renders ten pounds of pennies, twenty to the ounce, or a Norway [Norresc) hawk ; and to the Queen also a hundred shillings by tale ; and twenty shillings, of twenty (pence) to the ounce, for a sumpter horse. These seventeen pounds by weight and sixteen pounds by tale are for the pleas of the county (court) and for the Hundreds, and if he does not receive (so much) from that source {inde), he pays it out of his own (means). In the county there are twelve Hundreds ; seven of these are so exempt {quieti), the shire (court) says, that the sheriff has no rights [nichil) in them, and therefore, as (he) says, he loses much on the ferm {in firmd). In this county, if any one should have wittingly broken the peace given by the King with his (own) hand, he is adjudged an outlaw {utlaghe) ; but if any one should have wittingly broken the King's peace given by the sheriff, he shall pay a fine of (emendabii) a hundred shillings. He who shall have committed ' forsteal' ('forestellum ')^ shall pay a fine of a hundred shillings ; he who shall have committed ' hamfare ' {heinfaram) a hundred shillings ; (for him) who shall have committed rape, let there be no amend but corporal punishment {non sit emendatio alia nisi de corpore justicia) .^ These forfeitures belong to the ' ' Forsteal ' was waylaying or (attack from) ambush (with malice prepense) ; ' himfare ' (like ' hams6cn ') was attack on a man's house. These, like the breach of the peace which precedes them, were the special pleas of the Crown usually reserved. {History of English Law [1895], II. 451-56, 466, 491.) ^ Compare Ibid. II. 453, 488-90. This is almost the only mention of the above offence in Domesday Book, possibly because where it could not be atoned for by a fine, it did not contribute to the profits of jurisdiction. 282