CHAP. 15. Making of bridges and banks.
CHAP. 16. Defending of banks.
CHAP. 19. Purveyance for a castle.
CHAP. 20. Doing of castle ward.
CHAP. 21. Taking of horses, cattle and wood.
CHAP. 22. How long felon's lands shall be
holden by the king. |
should pay 6s 8d, and be allowed it against the
defendant among his other costs.
So early as 1663, there was an act of assembly
for amercements in the provincial and county
courts, the provisions in which were successively
re-enacted in 1692, 1694, 1695, 1715 and 1722,
which last act (Ch. 12) directed that plaintiffs discontinuing,
or defendants being cast, (except executors,
administrators and minors,) should, if
they imparled, be amerced 50lb. of tobacco in
the provincial court, and 30lb. in the county court.
This act is still in force, except as to the alteration
of the general court. By the act of 1714, the
clerks were to keep an account of the amercements,
and send them to the sheriffs. Directions
were given for the collection and payment of
them by the act of February 1777, Ch. 6, and
June 1780, Ch. 8, and by 1799, Ch. 80, the collection
was to be superintended by the states
agent.
There is in the records of the provincial court,
an order in 1674, that the fines, forfeitures and
amercements be estreated--that is, that true copies
of the records thereof should be delivered for
collection. The forms of the amercements of the
parties are still preserved in the judgements rendered
in the state, similar to those in the appendix
to 3 Bl. Com. and other books of entries.
From the above view of the subject of amercements,
it does not appear that this chapter was applicable
to the circumstances of the people of the
province, and if it related to fines, the object was
attained by the statute 34 Edw. 3, Ch. 1, by the
bill of rights in 1688, and is now secured by our declaration
of rights, (article 22.)
CHAP. 22. The king's " year, day and waste,"
to which this statute and the 17 Edw. 2, related,
is stated by Blackstone, (4 vol. 379) as regularly
belonging to the crown, but usually compounded
for. |
