How an officer sworn

shall de

self.

very, to be kept and holden in and for the liberty of such cities, boroughs, and towns corporate, albeit they have no freehold; any act, statute, use, custom, or ordinance to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.

II. Provided alway, that this act do not extend, in any manner or wise, to any knight or esquire, dwelling, abiding, or resorting in or to any such city, town, or borough corporate; any thing in the same act mentioned or declared to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.

26 Hen. 8, c. 4.

Where, for lack of diligent and sure custody of jurors for the keep- sworn for trials of murtherers, felons, and accessories of ing of jurors felonies and murthers in Wales and the marches of the in Wales same, divers adherents, friends, and kinsfolks to such mean him- offenders, have resorted to the same jurors, and have suborned them to acquit divers murtherers, felons, and accessories, openly and notoriously known, contrary to equity and justice: it is therefore enacted, &c., that forthwith, upon the charge given to any inquest hereafter to be taken and sworn before any justicer, steward, lieutenant, or other officer within Wales or the marches of the same, of, for, and upon any traverse against the king, or the trial of any recognizance broken, or any other forfeiture forfeited to the king, or of, for, and upon the trial of any murtherer, felon, or accessory of felony or murther, one officer or other person shall be deputed and sworn in the presence of the said justicer or other officer, for the true and diligent keeping of the same jurors; and that the some officer or other person so sworn, without the special commandment of the said justicer or officer, shall not do, or suffer to be ministered to the same jurors, any bread, drink, meat, fire, or light, nor shall suffer the same jurors to speak to any person or persons; nor the same officer or other person sworn without the commandment aforesaid, shall not speak to the said jurors, but only to demand of them of their agreement, unto such time as the same jurors shall have given their verdict; any usage or custom heretofore used to the contrary notwithstanding; and if the same officer, or the person so sworn in form aforesaid, do not execute and accomplish the premises in the oath before rehearsed in every point and article, then the same officer or other person so sworn, shall be punished and imprisoned, and make fine and ransom to the king's highness, by the discretion of the justicer, steward, lieutenant, or other officer.

The penalty II. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that of jurors in if the same jurors do acquit any such felon, murtherer, Wales, com- or accessory, upon whose trial they shall be charged, or jury, or give any untrue verdict against the king, upon the trial of

mitting per

selves.

any traverse, recognizance, or other forfeiture, contrary otherwise to good and pregnant evidence ministered to them by per- misdemeansons sworn before the said justicer, steward, lieutenant, ing themor other officer, or that the said jurors, or any of them, do eat, drink, or speak to or with any other person or persons than to such as be sworn with them, or otherwise misdemean themselves after they be sworn, and before they have given their verdict, that then the lord president, and other of the council of the marches for the time being, upon notice or complaint thereof to them made, shall not only have power and authority by this present act to call such jurors before them, but also the same justicer, steward, or other officer afore whom any such acquittal, untrue verdict, or misdemeanor shall happen to be made, shall have full power and authority to compel such jurors, and every of them, upon pain of imprisonment, to be bounden by recognizance in a certain sum of money, by their discretion to be limited, that the same jurors, and every of them, shall personally appear at a certain day, by the same justicer, steward, or other officer, to be limited, before the lord president, and other of the council aforesaid for the time being, then and there to abide and stand to such direction and order as the same council shall make, ordain, and decree, of, in, and upon the same; and that the same council shall thereupon have authority and power, by examination or otherwise, to hear and determine all and every such cause, and shall have like authority to commit every of the same jurors to prison or other punishment, as shall be thought most meet by the discretion of the said council, or otherwise assess or tax every such juror to his fine or ransom by the same discretion, to be paid and levied of their lands, goods, and chattels, to the use of the king's highness.

6 Geo. 4, c. 50.

I. Whereas the laws relative to the qualification and summoning of jurors, and the formation of juries in England and Wales, are very numerous and complicated, and it is expedient to consolidate and simplify the same, and to increase the number of persons qualified to serve on juries, and to alter the mode of striking special juries, and in some other respects to amend the said laws: be it therefore enacted, &c., that every man, except as hereinafter Qualificaexcepted, between the ages of twenty one years and sixty tion of years, residing in any county in England, who shall have jurors in in his own name or in trust for him, within the same England in county, ten pounds by the year above reprizes in lands or courts, astenements, whether of freehold, copyhold, or customary sizes, and tenure, or of ancient demesne, or in rents issuing out of sessions of the peace. any such lands or tenements, or in such lands, tenements, and rents taken together, in fee simple, fee tail, or for the

superior

Qualifica

tions in Wales.

ries.

life of himself or some other person, or who shall have within the same county twenty pounds by the year above reprizes, in lands or tenements held by lease or leases for the absolute term of twenty-one years, or some longer term, or for any term of years determinable on any life or lives, or who being a householder shall be rated or assessed to the poor rate, or to the inhabited house duty in the county of Middlesex, on a value of not less than thirty pounds, or in any other county on a value of not less than twenty pounds, or who shall occupy a house containing not less than fifteen windows, shall be qualified, and shall be liable to serve on juries for the trial of all issues joined in any of the king's courts of record at Westminster, and in the superior courts, both civil and criminal, of the three counties palatine, and in all courts of assize, nisi prius, oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, such issues being respectively triable in the county in which every man so qualified respectively shall reside, and shall also be qualified and liable to serve on grand juries in courts of sessions of the peace, and on petty juries for the trial of all issues joined in such courts of sessions of the peace, and triable in the county, riding, or division in which every man so qualified respectively shall reside; and that every man (except as hereinafter excepted) being between the aforesaid ages, residing in any county in Wales, and being there qualified to the extent of three-fifths of any of the foregoing qualifications, shall be qualified and shall be liable to serve on juries for the trial of all issues joined in the courts of great sessions, and on grand juries in courts of sessions of the peace, and on petty juries for the trial of all issues joined in such courts of sessions of the peace, in every county of Wales in which every man so qualified as last aforesaid respectively shall reside.

Exemptions II. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that all from servpeers; all judges of the king's courts of record at Westing on ju minster, and of the courts of great session in Wales; all clergymen in holy orders; all priests of the Roman Catholic faith who shall have duly taken and subscribed the oaths and declarations required by law; all persons who shall teach or preach in any congregation of Protestant Dissenters, whose place of meeting is duly registered, and who shall follow no secular occupation except that of a schoolmaster, procuring a certificate of some justice of the peace of their having taken the oaths, and subscribed the declaration required by law; all serjeants and barristers at law actually practising; all members of the Society of Doctors of Law, and Advocates of the Civil Law actually practising; all attorneys, solicitors, and proctors duly admitted in any court of law or equity, or of ecclesiastical or admiralty jurisdiction, in which attorneys, solicitors, and prostors have usually been admitted, actually practising, and having duly taken out their annual certificates; all offic rs of

any such courts actually exercising the duties of their respective offices; all coroners, gaolers, and keepers of houses of correction; all members and licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians in London actually practising; all surgeons being members of one of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and actually practising; all apothecaries certificated by the Court of Examiners of the Apothecaries' Company, and actually practising; all officers in his majesty's navy or army on full pay; all pilots licensed by the Trinity House of Deptford, Stroud, Kingston-upon-Hull, or Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and all masters of vessels in the buoy and light service employed by either of those corporations, and all pilots licensed by the lord warden of the cinque ports, or under any act of parliament or charter for the regulation of pilots in any other port; all the household servants of his majesty, his heirs and successors; all officers of customs and excise; all sheriff's officers, high constables, and parish clerks; shall be and are hereby absolutely freed and exempted from being returned, and from serving upon any juries or inquests whatsoever, and shall not be inserted in the lists to be prepared by virtue of this act, as hereinafter mentioned: provided also, that all persons exempt from serving upon juries in any of the courts aforesaid, by virtue of any prescription, charter, grant, or writ, shall continue to have and enjoy such exemption in as ample a manner as before the passing of this act, and shall not be inserted in the lists hereinafter mentioned.

Convicts or outlaws, &c.

III. Provided also, and be it enacted and declared, that Aliens. no man, not being a natural-born subject of the king, is or shall be qualified to serve on juries or inquests, except only disqualified. in the cases hereinafter expressly provided for; and no man who hath been or shall be attainted of any treason or felony, or convicted of any crime that is infamous, unless he shall have obtained a free pardon, nor any man who is under outlawry or excommunication, is or shall be qualified to serve on juries or inquests in any court, or on any occasion whatsoever.

IV. [Clerk of the peace to issue warrants to the high constables in July. See the schedule.]

VI. [High constables to issue precepts to churchwardens and overseers within their constablewicks, commanding them to make out the jury lists. See the schedule.]

make out

VIII. And be it further enacted, that the churchwardens Churchwarand overseers of every parish, and the overseers of every dens and township, within the meaning of this act, shall forthwith, overseers to after the receipt of such precept from the high constable, lists of perprepare and make out in alphabetical order a true list of sons quali every man residing within their respective parishes or fied to serve townships who shall be qualified and liable to serve on on juries. juries as aforesaid, with the christian and surname written

Lists to be kept by clerk of

peace, and copied into juror's book.

Form of venire fa

cias,

and of pre

cept for jurors at gaol

deliveries

at full length, and with the true place of abode, the title, quality, calling, or business, and the nature of the qualification of every such man, in the proper columns of the form of return set forth in the schedule hereunto annexed.

IX. [Lists to be fixed on church doors, on the three first Sundays in September, and also kept by churchwardens for inspection.]

X. [Petty sessions to be held in the last week of September. Lists to be there produced, considered, reformed, and allowed. Lists, after allowance by petty sessions, to be delivered to high constable, and by him to the next quarter sessions.]

XII. And be it further enacted, that the clerk of the peace shall keep the lists, so returned by the high constable to the court of quarter sessions, among the records of the sessions, arranged with every hundred in alphabetical order, and every parish or township within such hundred likewise in alphabetical order, and shall cause the same to be fairly and truly copied in the same order, in a book to be by him provided for that purpose, at the expense of the county, riding, or division, with proper columns for making the register hereinafter directed, and shall deliver the same book to the sheriff of the county, or his under-sheriff, within six weeks next after the close of such sessions, which book shall be called "The Juror's Book for the year (inserting the calendar year for which such book is to be in use); and that every sheriff on quitting his office shall deliver the same to the succeeding sheriff; and that every jurors' book so prepared shall be brought into use on the first day of January after it shall be so delivered by the clerk of the peace to the sheriff, or his undersheriff, and shall be used for one year then next following.

XIII. And be it further enacted, that every writ of venire facias juratores for the trial of any issue whatsoever, whether civil or criminal, or on any penal statute, in any of the courts in England or Wales hereinbefore mentioned, shall direct the sheriff to return twelve good and lawful men of the body of his county, qualified according to law, and the rest of the writ shall proceed in the accustomed form; and that every precept to be issued for the return of jurors before courts of oyer and terminer, gaol delivery, the superior criminal courts of the three counties palatine, and and sessions courts of sessions of the peace in England, and before the courts of great sessions, and sessions of the peace in Wales, shall in like manner direct the sheriff to return a competent number of good and lawful men of the body of his county, qualified according to law, and shall not require the same to be returned from any hundred or hundreds, or from any particular venue within the county, and that the want of hundredors shall be no cause of challenge; any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding,

of the

peace.