Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/176

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
44
THE STATUTES OF WALES
[A.D. 1444-5
A.D. 1444-5]
23 Henry 6, c. 4.

Concerning Welshmen outlawed.

Item: Whereas divers Persons dwelling in Wales and in the Marches of Wales, indicted and outlawed of Treasons and Felonies, coming into the County of Hereford to Cities and Burghs, Towns, Fairs, and Markets, and to other Places within the said County sometime by Night, and there sell and buy Merchandize and tarry by 2, 3, 4 Days or more at their Will, and after return into their own Countries without grievance, Impeachment or Execution of the Law made upon them by the Sheriff of the said County, his Ministers, or by any other Person, by reason that the Sheriff and his Ministers oftentimes have no knowledge of their Persons, nor of their being within the said County, and other Persons, some for Favour and Amity, and some for Doubt of Hurt; by reason of which nondoing of due Execution of the Law, the said Persons indicted and outlawed, and other Offenders, of Wales and of the Marches aforesaid, doubt not to come, slay, burn, rob, and to do other Offences in the said County, to the perpetual Destruction and Impoverishment of the Commons of the said County: Our said Sovereign the King, considering the Premises, hath granted by Authority aforesaid. That if the Sheriff, Under-Sheriff, or any Sheriff's Minister, Mayor and Bailiffs of Towns and Boroughs, or any other Person conversant within the said County, know and see any such Person indicted or outlawed in any Place within the said County, that he shall arrest, take and bring him to the Gaol within the said County, and there shall deliver him to the Gaoler, after the Law of the Realm; and if any such Person indicted or outlawed will disobey the Arrest to be made in the Form aforesaid, that he against whom such Disobeisance is made, shall levy Hue and Cry: and that every Person that is conversant within the said County that heareth the Hue and Cry, shall come and aid him that levieth the said Hue and Cry, to take the said Offender, and shall do their Power that to do, and if they cannot take him, they shall follow and pursue him out of the said County with Hue and Cry: And that the Sheriff, Under-Sheriff and their Ministers, Mayor and Bailiffs, conversant and hearing of such Hue and Cries, shall make due Execution of the said Ordinance according to their Power, upon pain, that is to say, the said Sheriff, Under-Sheriff and their Ministers, Mayors and Bailiffs, to make fine