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County Court
The grand assize: four knights summoned to choose 12 to make the finding.
That was an important mechanism of conflict resolution in the first half of the thirteenth century when Ingram de Boynton was serving the shire or county court. The sheriff organized the king's shire court, and everyone who held property was responsible for the work of the court. In Yorkshire it normally met at six week intervals in York [Palmer, p. 4]. Knights came from all over the county to serve in the court, and shirking your responsibility was not allowed except by the king's dispensation, which cost money. Military service was the responsibility of knights. So was service in governing.
Once every six weeks Ingram saddled up and headed for York. His three principal manors were Acklam, Roxby and Boynton. They are all between 40 and 50 miles from York -- as the crow flies. It was at least two days to get there and two days back. The court was limited to meeting a single day. So, one week in six was spent doing the good of the realm in county court.
Ingram was not the only person who headed for York once every six weeks. The court drew a crowd. J. R. Maddicott wrote, "we ought perhaps to envisage a gathering of at least 150 men, and occasionally very many more, at most sessions of most county courts from the thirteenth century to the fifteenth." [Maddicott, p. 30] This was everybody who was anybody in Yorkshire getting together to do the good of the realm -- and everything else one can imagine this crowd doing when getting together. Wine, food, land trading, rumor, establishing contacts, news from the king: it is hard to imagine anything that would not have happened in Yorkshire at six week intervals.
What conflicts were they resolving? Land. Land was wealth. Land was worked, land was let, land was inherited, land was exchanged. There could be conflict about each.
We know three times Ingram was selected as one of the twelve to make findings -- the grand assize. The grand assize "permited cases concerning the right to land to be settled not by battle, but in the presence of the king's justices, by twelve lawful knights of the area swearing as to which of the parties had the greater right in the land in question" [Hudson, p. 134]
When we buy or sell property a title search is conducted to make sure the deed is unencumbered by debt or controversy. The strategy in the three cases on which Ingram worked looks very much like a title search.
Walter son of Nicholas and Constance his wife claim against Michael of Hewurth a bovate (save 3 1/2 roods) of land in Hewruth as the right of Constance; of which one Leverik, her ancestor, was seised in demesne etc. in time of K. Henry II etc.; and from Leverik the right descended to one Andrew as son and heir etc. and from Andrew to one Geoffrey as son and heir etc. and from Geoffrey to one William as son and heir etc. and from William, who died without heir of his body, to Constance, now claimant, as sister and heir; and that this be so they offer etc. [Parker, 1932, p. 26]
First Leverik [time specified], then Andrew [how], then Geoffrey [how], then William [how], then Constance [how]. Four generations is what you needed to specify -- apparently. Michael of Hewurth went right to the starting point in the chain; he challenged the right of Leverik. Ingram and friends had to determine where right resided -- with Constance or Michael. They could not run down to the county recorder and check the records. There was no county recorder. They were supposed to know -- or find someone who did know.
Ingram appeared in court on other occasions, though never as a disputant himself as far as we know. Two times he appeared in court to warrant others. The practice was for the lord from whom land was held to provide backup-warrant when someone who held land from him was taken to court [Hudson, p. 110].
Between Eduse daughter of Lambert, claimant, and Engelram of Bointon, whom Robert Risles has called to warrant, warrantor; as to a toft in Swauetorp.
Quitclaim by Eduse, for herself and her heirs, to John and his heirs. Engelram gives 5 shillings sterling. (bundle 262, file 21, No. 184.) [Parker, 1921, p. 100].
Ingram got to pay 5 shillings for the priviledge of providing warrant for Robert Risles in this case. "John and his heirs" seems a mystery we are not likely to unravel given the state of the documents and the participants.
They did not have bail, and they did not have a large bureaucracy that could hunt down people who refused to appear at court. Instead they asked for people who would guarantee appearance in court. Ingram agreed to stand as surety on two occasions.
376. Alexander son of Simon levied the assize of mort d'ancestor against Robert son of Robert touching half a carcate of land with appurtenances in Boynton and has not followed it up, therefore he and his sureties for the prosecution, Engeram of Boynton and Stephen of Fraisthorpe, are in mercy. [Stenton, p. 163]
On this occasion Ingram guaranteed that Alexander would sue Robert. Alexander and Robert worked out a deal, and Ingram and Stephen of Fraisthorpe, who were sureties for the prosecution of the suit, had to pay the court ["are in mercy"].
Government in England at this time was the king, the king's court, the sheriff, who was the king's man in the county, and the county court. At the county court hundreds of the best connected people in the county got together at regular intervals to resolve conflicts about land, which is what we can learn about from the feet of fines. The sheriff read the proclamations of the king to them; that surely prompted a good deal of critical conversation. More taxes? What does he think we are made of? Going to war again? If he is so hot to take France let him do it. And from time to time they formulated proclamations and sent them to the king. In their meeting and their actions they constituted their community.
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Maddicott, J. R. (1978) The County Community and the Making of Public Opinion in Fourteenth-Century England, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, fifth Series vol. 28.
Palmer, Robert C. (1982) The County Courts of Medieval England, 1150-1350, Princeton University Press.
Parker, John (1910) Feet of Fines for the County of York, from 1327 to 1347, Record Series vol. 42, Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
Parker, John (1921) Feet of Fines for the County of York, From 1218 to 1231, Record Series vol. 62, Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
Parker, John (1932) Feet of Fines for the County of York, 31-56 Henry III., Yorkshire Records Series.
Stenton, Doris Mary ed. (1937) Rolls of the Justices in Eyre Being the Rolls of Pleas and Assizes for Yorkshire in 3 Henry III (1218-19), Seldon Society.