>>> Item number 474, dated 94/02/09 07:41:45 -- ALL

Date:         Wed, 9 Feb 1994 07:41:45 -0600
Reply-To:     Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender:       Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET>
From:         cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu
Subject:      Re: Juries in manorial courts

From owner-h-albion@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU Mon Feb 7 15:04 CST 1994

From: "Dr D.A. Postles" <pot@leicester.ac.uk>

Peter Junger asked if juries were used in borough courts (portmoots). They almost certainly were, but the individuals and often procedure are often elusive -- ignoring here Statute Merchant and Staple courts. A frequent term was jurats. Looking through a few books on my shelves, I find little treatment of these internal constitutional matters in recent studies of boroughs. It might be a question of going back to Mary bateson, _Borough Customs_ (Selden Society), although there too I see much on procedure in general but little on jurats in particular. One of the most recent studies, David Shaw's _The Creation of a Community_ (Wells) has a few references (pp. 111, 115, 220). Richard Britnell, however, wrote a piece on the courts of Colchester after his book came out and he may well have more to say about these matters (University of Durham). Maryanne Kowaleski too may have info for Exeter (Fordham). If you have access to Bateson's _Records of the Borough of Leicester_, you may well find much of interest in there. Geoffrey Martin has done something for the jurats of Leicester and Ipswich, if you are interested, but it is not a major specialist study. There are probably other studies of boroughs generally and specifically which I have not mentioned. David Postles