STATUS OF THE JURORS 211
The personal status of the jurors is equally difficult to gene-
ralise about. Mr Aulfs examination of the Ramsey documents
leads him to say, "There seems to be no general rule about the
status of the members of a jury ", and he shows that some Ramsey
juries included both free and unfree, although he notes that two
men refused to serve on a jury at Elton alleging themselves to be
free men, and therefore exempt.1 No doubt free men were more
and more repudiating claims made on them (whether legally or
illegally) to serve on all kinds of juries, but it was long before
they finally shook off the claims made on them; and, as we have
seen, many free men in the thirteenth century and the fourteenth
were bound to appear at the Manor Court, and hence were liable
to be made part of a jury.2
We can, however, discern a growing disinclination to serve
on the part of free men—at least to serve on a mixed jury of free
and unfree. In the course of time there emerges on some manors
a system of two juries—one free, the other unfree. On the manor
of Carshalton, in Surrey, we find that after the capital pledges
(acting as a jury of presentment) have made their charges, a free
jury of twelve is sworn who have to declare that the capital
pledges have done everything in order, and have omitted nothing.
At Ingoldmells at the end of the fourteenth century we have the
two bodies clearly shown. First, in 1391, we hear of the free
jurors presenting infractions of the assize of bread and ale, while
the "bond tenants" present other offences and elect manorial
officers.3 In 1399, a more exact terminology is used, and we find
the free jurors and the bond jurors both mentioned.4 A little
later (1410) each jury seems to deal only with its own peers,5 and
then in 1411 we find (as at Carshalton) that the inquisition of
sixteen bond tenants makes presentments, and at the end of the
proceedings we read: "The inquisition of (sixteen) free tenants
says and affirms that all the presentments above are true, and
that they have nothing else to present."6
As time went on there is some evidence which leads us to
believe that those chosen as jurymen became a select class. Even
1 Ault, op. cit. 166, quoting from Selden Soc. n, 94.
* Ingoldmells Rolls, 107 n. I.
* Ibid. 190. * Ibid. 194.
1 Ibid. 216. e Ibid. 221, 222.