SECTION II
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
i. The Courts— Communal and Manorial—The
Anglo-Saxon local judicial system remained for some time
after the Conquest little changed. Its usefulness was
probably recognised by the new king, who certainly had
nothing better to put in its place, but who had maintained
some kind of local public courts in Normandy.x The pri-
vate jurisdictions, which have been noted as seriously
cutting into the hundred courts, were now, in most
cases, the jurisdictions of Norman instead of Saxon
lords. But notwithstanding the substantial continuance
of the old system, certain important changes did begin
and certain new conceptions inevitably arose in the early
Norman period.2
The possibility that already in the Anglo-Saxon period
the reeve and four men of manor or vill had, upon occa-
sion, gone as representatives to hundred and shire courts
has been discussed.3 Whether or not they did then, they
certainly did in the early Norman period whenever the
non-freeholdhg element on the manor was not repre-
sented by the lord or his steward. The idea back of this
practice is very obscure, and the function of these rep-
resentatives, at least in this early period, equally so;4
1 See above, p. 82.
2 These are briefly outlined here, and this consideration will serve as a
starting point for the consecutive study of the creation of the English judi-
cial system in Part III., § L
3 See above, p. 66, note I.
* The reeve and four men would ordinarily be villeins, and it is clear
that they were not regarded as suitors, that is, could not act as judges in
the courts. As to their connection with the frankpledge and later jury
system, see below, pp. 150,151,181.
102