There was no salary nor any requirement of knowledge
of the law. They were to pursue, restrain, arrest, imprison, try,
and duly punish felons, trespassers, and rioters according to the
law. They were expected to arrest vagrants who would not work and
imprison them until sureties for good behavior was found for them.
They also were empowered to inspect weights and measures. Trespass
included forcible offenses of breaking of a fence enclosing
private property, assault and battery, false imprisonment, and
taking away goods and chattels.
The action of trespass was replacing private suits for murder and
for personal injury.
Pardons may be given only for slaying another in one's own defense
or by misfortune [accident], and not for slaying by lying in wait,
assault, or malice aforethought.
Justices of Assize, sheriffs, and Justices of the Peace and mayors
shall have power to inquire of all vagabonds and compel them to
find surety of their good bearing or be imprisoned.
A reversioner shall be received in court to defend his right when
a tenant for a term of life, tenant in dower, or by the Law of
England, or in Tail after Possibility of Issue extinct are sued in
court for the land, so as to prevent collusion by the demandants.
A person in debt may not avoid his creditors by giving his
tenements or chattels to his friends in collusion to have the
profits at their will.
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