arms, from which it appears that there were, in all, 495, of whom 421 were considered able men, including 208 furnished with callivers, 33 pikemen with corslets, 54 archers, and 125 billmen.
There are also a large collection of Books of the Court Leet, from the presentments at which I have made several extracts; Town Court Rolls of the time of Henry VI., Admiralty Court Books from 1556 to 1585, and one very curious book containing matters of the times of Edward I., II., and III., with brief notices of charters granted to different cities and towns in England, and the laws of the guild of Southampton in Norman-French.
I now propose to give a few extracts, chiefly from the Court Leet Books. I cannot but notice the jealous care with which the jury of the Court Leet watched over the general interests of their fellow citizens, checking all encroachments on the common lands, lest, though originally of small importance, they might grow up into a prescriptive right, and removing obstructions and nuisances in the highways and streets. Thus, under date 1567, we find a long presentment regulating the period of the year at which cattle should be placed on the commons of the Salt-marshes, Houndwell, and Hoglands, respectively. The brewers are ordered to dig no clay in the Saltmarsh, because it is town land: a man named Rock is presented for having encroached with his garden "the value of half a yard" into Houndwell Fields: and a remonstrance is entered against the sowing of woad in Hogland, because "the common sort of the people find themselves greatly grieved withal, for that after woad-sowing, there will grow no grass or any thing else, for the cattle to feed on."
Nor do they appear to have been less attentive to the moral condition of their town, than to their manorial rights. The presentments at the Courts Leet bear constant testimony to the desire of promoting, as far as possible, good order and good manners. Thus, in 1607, three "churmaydes were presented, two of them because they had no present employment; both were required to put themselves immediately to service, or to leave the town." In 1608, a person named Warde was presented "for letting his apprentice go up and down the street, and was ordered to take the boy into his service, and do him reasonable correction as the law requireth." In 1609, three men are ordered to pay each 3s. 4d. for tippling
