lings[1]. Which is the ſame ſum, or three marks, that bounded the juriſdiction of the antient Gothic courts in their loweſt inſtance, or fierding-courts, ſo called becauſe four were inſtituted within every ſuperior diſtrict: or hundred[2]. But the proceedings on a writ of right may be removed into the county court by a precept from the ſheriff called a tolt[3], "quia tollit atque eximit cauſam e curia baronum[4]". And the proceedings in all other actions may be removed into the ſuperior courts by the king's writs of pone[5], or accedas ad curiam, according to the nature of the ſuit[6]. After judgment given, a writ alſo of falſe judgment[7] lies to the courts at Weſtminſter to rehear and review the cauſe, and not a writ of error; for this is not a court of record: and therefore in all theſe writs of removal, the firſt direction given is to cauſe the plaint to be recorded, recordari facias loquelam.
III. A hundred court is only a larger court-baron, being held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred inſtead of a manor. The free ſuitors are here alſo the judges and the ſteward the regiſtrar, as in the caſe of a court baron, It is likewiſe no court of record; reſembling the former in all points, except that in point of territory it is of a greater juriſdiction[8]. This is ſaid by ſir Edward Coke to have been derived out of the county court for the eaſe of the people, that they might have juſtice done to them at their own doors, without any charge or loſs of time[9]: but it's inſtitution was probably co-eval with that of hundreds themſelves, which were formerly obſerved[10] to have been introduced though not invented by Alfred, being derived from the polity of the antient Germans. The centeni, we may remember were the principal inhabitants of a diſtrict compoſed of different villages, originally in number an hundred, but afterwards only
l Finch. 248. m Stiernhook de jure Goth. l. 1. c. 2. n F.N. 6.3,4. See append. No. 1. §. 2. o 3 Rep. Pref. p See append, No. 1. §. 3. q F.N.B. 4. 70. Finch. L. 444, 445. r F. N. B. 18. s Finch. L. 248. 4 Inſt. 267. t 2 Inſt. 71. v Vol. I. introd. §. 4.
