Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/371

 Ch. 9. next conider ome officers of lower rank than thoe which have gone before, and of more confined juridiction; but till uch as are univerally in ue through every part of the kingdom.

IV. , then, of the contable. The word contable is frequently aid to be derived from the Saxon, koning-taple, and to ignify the upport of the king. But, as we borrowed the name as well as the office of contable from the French, I am rather inclined to deduce it, with ir Henry Spelman and Dr Cowel, from that language, wherein it is plainly derived from the Latin comes tabuli, an officer well known in the empire; o called becaue, like the great contable of France, as well as the lord high contable of England, he was to regulate all matters of chivalry, tilts, turnaments, and eats of arms, which were performed on horeback. This great office of lord high contable hath been diued in England, except only upon great and olemn occasions, as the king's coronation and the like, ever ince the attainder of Stafford duke of Buckingham under king Henry VIII; as in France it was uppreed about a century after by an edict of Louis XIII : but from his office, ays Lambard, this lower contablehip was at firt drawn and fetched, and is as it were a very finger of that hand. For the tatute of Wincheter, which firt appoints them, directs that, for the better keeping of the peace, two contables in every hundred and franchie hall inpect all matters relating to arms and armour.

are of two orts, high contables, and petty contables. The former were firt ordained by the tatute of Wincheter, as before-mentioned; and are appointed at the court leets of the franchie or hundred over which they preide, or, in default of that, by the jutices at their quarter eions; and are removeable by the ame authority that appoints them. The petty Rh