County of

to wit.

To the high constable [or, To one of the high constables] of the hundred [lathe, wapentake, &c.] of within the county

aforesaid.

These are to require you, within fourteen days after the receipt hereof, to issue and deliver [in the form hereunto annexed, or as near thereto as may be] your precepts to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the several parishes, and to the overseers of the poor of the several townships within your constablewick, requiring them to make out and return true lists of jurors, and you are at the same time to annex to each precept a sufficient number of the forms of returns left herewith; and if you find that the number now left with you is not sufficient for all the places within your constablewick, you are to apply to me for more; and you are further required to attend at a petty sessions in the last week of September next (of which you shall have due notice); and such lists as you shall there receive you are to deliver to the next court of quarter sessions for this county [riding or division], on the first day of its sitting, and at the same time to make oath of your receipt of such lists, and that no alteration has been made therein since your receipt of them. If there is any parish within your constablewick that has no overseers of the poor except the churchwardens, you are in such case to treat them as the churchwardens and overseers of such parish, and to direct your precept, together with a sufficient number of forms of returns, to them accordingly; and if there is any parish or township which extends into any other constablewick besides your own, you are to treat every such parish or township as within your constablewick, provided the principal church of such parish or township is situated within your constablewick, and you are to issue your precepts with a sufficient number of forms of return accordingly; and these several matters you are in no wise to omit upon the peril that shall ensue.

Given under my hand at

year

in the said county, the

day of

in the

clerk of the peace for the said county [riding or division].

The following is the form of the PRECEPT provided by the same act, to be issued on the warrant of the clerk of the peace by every high constable to the parish officers of the several parishes and townships within his district, and which minutely explains their duties:

Hundred of to wit.

{

County of

To the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish [or to the overseer of the township] of ·

By virtue of a warrant from the clerk of the peace of the said county [riding or division], unto me directed, you are hereby required to make out, before the first day of September next, a true list in writing, in the form hereunto annexed, containing the names of all men, being natural born subjects of the king, between the ages of twenty-one and sixty, residing within your parish [or township], qualified to serve upon juries; that is to say, of every such man who has in his own name, or in trust for him, a clear income of ten pounds by the year in lands or tenements, whether of freehold, copyhold, or customary tenure, or of ancient demesne, situate in the said county, or in rents issuing out of any such lands or tenements, or in

such lands, tenements, and rents, taken together, in fee simple, or fee tail, or for his own life, or for the life of any other persons; and also of every such man who has a clear income of twenty pounds by the year, in lands or tenements, situate in the said county, held by lease for the absolute term of twenty-one years, or some longer term, or for any term of years determinable on any life or lives; and also of every such man who is a householder in your parish [or township], and is rated or assessed to the poor rate, or to the inhabited house duty, on a value of not less than twenty pounds [if in Middlesex, thirty pounds]; and also of every such man who occupies a house in your parish [or township], containing not less than fifteen windows; and you are required to make out the said list in alphabetical order, and to write the Christian and surname of every man at full length, and the place of his abode, his title, quality, calling, or business, and the nature of his qualification, in the proper columns of the forms hereunto annexed, according to the specimens given in such columns for your guidance.

And if you have not a sufficient number of forms, you must apply to me for more; and in order to assist you in making out the list, you are to refer to the poor rate; and you may, if you think proper, apply to any collector or assessor of taxes, or any other officer who has the custody of any house tax, land tax, or other tax assessment for your parish [or township], and take from thence the names of men so qualified; and in making such list, you are to omit the names of all peers; all judges; all clergymen; all Roman Catholic priests who shall have duly taken and subscribed the oaths and declaration required by law; all ministers of any congregation of Protestant dissenters, whose place of meeting is duly registered, provided they follow no secular occupation except that of a schoolmaster, and produce to you 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; all members of the society of doctors at law, and all advocates of the civil law, if actually practising; and all attornies, solicitors, and proctors, if actually practising, and having taken out their annual certificates; all officers of the courts of law and equity, and of the admiralty and ecclesiastical courts, if actually exercising the duties of their respective offices; all coroners; all gaolers and keepers of houses of correction; all members and licentiates of the royal college of physicians in London, and all members of the royal college of surgeons in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, and apothecaries certificated by the court of examiners of the apothecaries' company, if actually practising as physicians, surgeons, or apothecaries respectively; all officers of the army and navy on full pay; all pilots licensed by the Trinity-house of Deptford Strond, 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 ports; all the household servants of her majesty; all officers of customs of excise; all sheriffs' officers, high constables, and parish clerks [and also all persons exempt by virtue of any prescription, charter, grant, or writ] (a).

And when you have made out such list, you are authorized to order a sufficient number of copies thereof to be printed, the expense of which printing will be allowed

(a) But see now in boroughs (except in Westminster), 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 122 and 123, ante, p. 128.

you by the parish [or township]; and you are required on the three first Sundays in September next, to fix a copy of such list, signed by you, on the principal door of every church, chapel, or other public place of religious worship within your parish [or township], and also to subjoin to every such copy a notice to the following effect, inserting the time and place, of which you shall be previously informed:— "Take notice, that all objections to the foregoing list will be heard by the justices in petty sessions on the day of September next, at the hour of at -;" and you must allow any inhabitant of your parish [or township] to inspect the original list, or a true copy of it, during the three first weeks in September next, gratis; and you are also further required to produce the said list at such petty sessions, and there to answer on oath such questions as shall be put to you by her majesty's justices of the peace there present, touching the said list; and these several matters you are in no wise to omit, upon the peril that may ensue. Given under my hand, at in the said county, the ——, day of ——, in t

year

High Constable.

the

Lists of Jurors, how prepared, affixed, and amended.]—In pursuance of this precept, the churchwardens and overseers are to prepare lists in the following form:

County of
to wit.
Hundred of

Parish or Township. [In towns add the name of the streets.]

The return of the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of- in the hundred of in the said county, of men qualified to serve on juries.

Christian and surname at full length.

Title, quality,

calling, or
business.

Nature of qualification.

The list so made out by the parish officers is to be affixed by them to the doors of the places of worship in the parish, to remain during the three first Sundays of September, with the notice subjoined as mentioned in the precept (b). On some day within the last seven days of September, in every year, at a day and place of which the justices shall have given notice before the preceding 20th August, to the high constable, churchwardens, and overseers of every parish and township in the division, the justices of the division are to hold a speciul (c) petty

(b) 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 9.

(c) A petty session held for this special purpose seems intended, and not a "special session" properly so called,

viz. one of which every magistrate of the division must have notice; and see the phraseology of ss. 9 and 45, in which "petty session" is used.

session, at which the parish officers must attend, and produce their lists, and answer on oath any questions which may be asked by the magistrates respecting them. At this petty session the justices are authorized, on the oath of any party complaining that he is not liable or qualified to serve, e. g. for being under or over age, or want of qualification by property, &c., having served within the time fixed by sect. 42 (post, p. 135), or on other proof, or on their own knowledge, to strike his name out of the list returned, and also to strike out the names of men disabled by lunacy, imbecility of mind, deafness, blindness, paralysis, or other continual infirmity of body, from serving on juries (d).

They are also empowered to amend the lists, by striking out the names of persons incapacitated by age, &c., or exempted by previous service, want of property, &c., introducing the name of any person improperly omitted; or to correct any error in the name or description of a person who is mentioned in such lists, notice having been given to the party to be affected; or, if notice be not previously given, at an adjourned sessions, to be held four days thereafter, at which such parties shall be called on to show cause (e). The lists, thus corrected, are to be allowed and signed by the justices, who are to give them to the high constable, who is to deliver them to the ensuing court of quarter sessions, upon oath that no alteration has been made in them since he received them.

Lists to be kept by Clerk of Peace, and copied into "Jurors' Book," to be delivered to Sheriff.]-The lists so returned to the sessions are to be kept by the clerk of the peace among the records of the sessions, arranged with every hundred in alphabetical order, and every parish or township within such hundred also in alphabetical order; and the clerk of the peace is required to 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, with proper columns for making the register afterwards directed, and to deliver the same book to the sheriff of the county or his under-sheriff, within six weeks next after the close of such session, which book shall be called "the jurors' book for the year" (inserting the calendar year for which such book is to be in use); and the sheriff, on quitting his office, is to deliver the same to his successor (f). Every jurors' book so pre

See 13

(d) 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 10. Ed. I. st. 1, c. 38; 2 Inst. 447. (e) 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 10. See 13

Ed. I. st. 1, c. 38; 2 Inst. 447.
(f) 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 12.

pared, is to be brought into use on the 1st January after it is so delivered by the clerk of the peace to the sheriff or his under-sheriff, and is to be used for one year then next following (g). From this book, for the current year, and from this only, the sheriff is to return the names of jurors, unless, indeed, there be no jurors' book for the current year, and then he may return names from the book of the year preceding (h).

Process to Sheriff for Return of Jurors from the Body of the County.]-The modern statute, 6 G. IV. c. 50, is chiefly directed to the formation of a class from which jurors are to be returned, and for the fair apportionment of duty among them; and does not affect the process by which the sheriff is required to return juries, or the precept issued by him in obedience to such process;-except that the sheriff is to be directed to return, and to issue his precept for the return of a competent number of good and lawful men, qualified according to law, from the body of the county, without requiring any to be returned from particular hundreds (i).

Grand Jury, by what Precept summoned.]—The grand jury are summoned by virtue of a precept, under the hands and seals of two justices, directed to the sheriff, upon which he is to return twenty-four or more out of the whole county, from whom the grand inquest is to be taken. By 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 1, the qualification and disabilities of grand and petty jurymen at sessions are precisely similar, and the names are to be taken from the same returns (k).

Petty Jury, how summoned.]-Before the holding of any general or quarter session, there is a precept issued to the sheriff, under the hands and seals of two justices, requiring him to return twenty-four jurors; but on this it is usual for him to return forty-eight, seventy-two, or more, according to the size of the bailiwick, and the expected number of prisoners, in order to provide for challenges (1), and the division of courts by the quarter sessions. The award or precept to try a pri

(g) 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 12. (h) Id. s. 14.

(i) 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 13. See ante, p. 68, and post, Chap. VII. s. 4.

(k) At assizes, the sheriff is not bound to return to serve on the grand jury, such persons only as appear on the jurors' book. See 6 G. IV. c. 50, s. 39,

and Russ. & Ry. 177. An Irish peer may serve on a grand or petty jury if he is a member of the House of Commons, and is thus to all intents and purposes a commoner: but not otherwise, id. 117, propter honoris respectum; and post, Chap. VII. s. 4.

(1) 2 Hale, 263. See ante, p. 68.