THE ESSOINS 205
of practice, and even in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
the stream did not dry up. Nevertheless, despite all these efforts
to achieve a common system, as Professor Hearnshaw writes,
"not only is medieval leet jurisdiction extremely nebulous as to
its circumference, but also it is uncertain even as to its centre".1
With this caution in rnind let us turn to examine the proceedings
of a Manor Court towards the end of the thirteenth century, so
far as they were recorded by the scribe on the Court Rolls.
The court was presided over by the lord, or by one of his
senior officials, and we have a good deal of evidence to suggest
what a stir his coming made in the village.2 As he took his place
on the dais, with his clerk by his side, silence was called for by
the usher or beadle, who then with his single " Oyez*' if it were
only a court for manorial business, or his triple "Oyez", if it
were a leet court for graver business, commanded all those whose
duty it was to be present to draw near.3 The proceedings then
began, and item by item was taken down by the clerk, and many
such documents have survived.4 If we turn to the roll of the
court of the Abbot of Halesowen we find that it opens with the
entry: "Essoniatus. Ricardus de Linaker de communi per
Johannem filium Johannis"5—that is Richard Linaker by means
of John excused himself from attendance for common service of
court, A message, either verbal or written, had to be produced
on behalf of the absentee, and this absence was enrolled by the
clerk and protected the man against fine for absence.
It appears that an essoin did not lie or could be objected to for
several reasons. If the suitor had two matters before the court, each
must be mentioned in the message----At one court the same man is
essoined against three separate matters by three separate essoiners----
An essoin must be for some good reason, not sent for mere caprice;
two men were fined for being seen in the neighbourhood of the court
after they had been essoined... .A suitor was allowed three essoins,
1 Leet Jurisdiction, 65. For a list of works on leet jurisdiction, and "How
to hold a Court", see pp. 29-42.
* Ault, op. ctt. 145, 146; Holdsworth, op. cit. I, 592.
3 J. Wilkinson, The Office and Authority of Coroners, etc. 1651, 161. The
triple " Oyez" of the crier, or of the beadle in a Quarter Sessions* Court is a
survival of this.
* See, for example, the rolls listed on the Public Record Office Calendar,
or the British Museum Catalogue of MSS.
6 Hales Rolls, 379 (1297).