Constitutional History.
424
General ob-
ject served
by the in-
denture.
Indentures
for the
Yorkshire
elections
from 1407
to 1445.
[chap.
have been the case, at the same time it must not be forgotten
that the custom of electing committees for various purposes
had long existed in the county courts, and that the analogy
of the borough elections, which went sometimes through two or
three stages of the kind, may have affected the county elections
also. Here again no evidence is at present forthcoming. But
there can be little doubt that the indenture was intended rather
as a check on the sheriff than as a restriction on the body of
electors : like the manucaption, it served to secure due com-
pliance with the writ. Occasionally the sealers may have
quietly ‘ cooked ’ the return. The same inference may be drawn
from the fact that the borough members were occasionally
returned by the same sealers as the knights of the shire : not
that they were chosen by them, but that the return was certified
by their authority. Unquestionably the power of the magnates
whenever it was exerted, the influence of the crown exercised
through the sheriff, the risk of popular tumult, and the persistence
of local usage, as well as the freedom of the county courts, must
be allowed to balance one another, and to affect the result.
The strangest instance of local usage is found in the in-
dentures of return for Yorkshire, which are quite unlike those
of the other counties, but so consistent with one another for
a series of years as to prove continuity of usage1. The in-
dentures of the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, and of
Henry VI down to his twenty-third year, show that the electors
who sealed the return were the attorneys of the great lords
of the franchises. The indentures for 14 ɪɪ and 14142 may
‘ Prynne, Reg. iii. pp. 152-154, 155.
2 The form in 1411 is this: The indenture made between the sheriff
of the one part and the attorneys of the lords ‘ Sectatorum Communium
[i.e. the lords] annuatim ad Comitatum Ebor. de sex septimanis in sex
septimanas, ex parte altera, testatur quod facta proclamatione per dictum
Vicecomitem in coιnitatu praedicto, virtute cujusdam brevis &e. &e. prae-
' dicti attornati unanimi assensu et Voluntate in praedicto comitatu existentes
et plenariam potestatem de Sectatoribus praedictis separatim habentes,
libéré et indiflerenter elegerunt duos milites,’ &c. After the act of 1445
the form is changed : it then becomes an indenture between the sheriff
and forty-three squires and others ‘ eleetores militum ad Jiarliamentum,'
&c. ; but these persons still make the election ‘ unanimi assensu et
consensu,’ without any reference to the remainder of the county court.
XX.]
Yorkshire Elections.
425
serve as specimens of the scries : in 1411 the electors are the Yorkshire
h p xxτ τ p elections.
attorneys of Balph earl of Westinorelaiidj Lucia countess of
Kent, Peter baron de Mauley, AVilliam baron de Boos, Ralph
baron of Greystoke, Sir Alexander de Metham, and Sir Henry
Percy ; they represent their masters as common suitors to the
county court of Yorkshire from six weeks to six weeks ; in
1414 the indentures are sealed by the attorneys of the arch-
bishop of York, the earl of Westmoreland, the earl Marshall,
the lord Ie Scrope of Masham, Peter de Mauley, Sir William
Metham, the lord de Roos, Margaret lady Vavasour, and Henry
Percy. These indentures differ from the others not only in Curious
v t # features
the character of the electors but in the nature of the interest of these
. ... i 1 returns.
they represent ; for in the other counties it is rarely that any
one above the rank of esquire appears as a party to the election.
One conclusion that can be safely drawn is that the sheriff
0fY0rkshire in 1411 understood the -writ differently from the
other sheriffs, and that his successors followed slavishly in his
steps. Of course it is possible that the Yorkshire county court
jurisdiction may have been long broken up among the courts
of the wapentakes and great franchises, so that recourse in
petty causes was seldom had to it ; and it will be remembered
that in I22O1 the stewards of the lords were the leading
members of it. But although the great size of the county, and
of the private jurisdictions embraced in it, may have led to
such an attenuation of the six weeks’ court, the assizes of the
justices were always largely attended, and there could have
been no difficulty in assembling a very large body of yeomen
freeholders. The simplest solution is to view the return simply
as a certificate of an uncontested election. The anomaly, what-
ever its cause, was remedied by the act of the 23rd Henry VI;
after which date the returns were made in the common form.
The changes in the forms of the county elections made by Legislation
the later Lancastrian legislation may be briefly stated : the House of
act of 141 о placed the conduct of the elections under the cog- m elections.
Prynne seems to imply that the first form was followed down to 1445, but
he gives no instances between 1429 auι-l 1447∙
ɪ Vol. ii. p. 225.