Law and Philology "William de Ros appeals Ailward Bere, Roger Bald, Robert Merchant, and Nicholas Parmenter, for that they came to his house and wickedly in the King's peace took away from him a certain villein of his whom he kept in chains because he wished to run away, and led him off, and in robbery carried away his wife's coffer with one mark of silver and other chattels; and this he offers to prove by his son, Robert de Ros, who saw it. And Ailward and the others have come and defended the felony, robbery and breach of the King's peace, and say that (as the custom is in Cornwall) Roger of Prideaux, by the sheriff's orders, caused twelve men to come together and make oath about the said villein, whether he was the King's villein, or William's and it was found that he was the King's villein, so the said Roger the serjeant de manded that (William) should surrender him, and he refused, so (Roger) sent to the sheriff, who then sent to deliver (the villein), who, however,' had escaped and was not to be found, and William makes this appeal because he wishes to keep the chattels of Thomas (the villein), to wit {scil.), two oxen, one cow, one mare, two pigs, nine sheep, eleven goats; and that this is so the jurors testify. Judgment: William and Robert in mercy for the false claim. William's amercement, a half-mark. Robert's amerce ment, a half-mark. Pledge for the mark, Warin, Robert's son. Let the King have his chattel from William. Pledge for the chattels, Richard, Hervey's son." During the period of the Norman French which followed the Latin period above referred to, the writers held fast to the legal phraseology but put it into the French. In the reports of that period, from 1350 on, we find numerous cases of cestassauoir,11 cest assavoir,1* ceste assaver,19 and variations and abbreviations of them. When the French period passed and the King ordered the legal reports to be recorded in English, then it was that the law clerks, who wrote the reports in those days, must have adopted, to a certain extent at least, the old Latin word scilicet the form of which later con tracted to 55. 17 Sel. Soc. Pub.. Vol. 10, p. 11. Bill in Chancery in 1396. "Mirror for Justices, Sel. Soc. Pub., Vol. 7, p. 133. 19 Mirror for Justices, Sel. Soc. Pub., Vol. 7. p. 3.
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Just how the final s became attached to the initial letter is the one difficult point to explain. Although we have no proof of the theory, it is very likely that it came through the fact that the final et of many words was abbreviated in old manuscripts and books20 into a letter which resembles our z. Many examples of this z are found in the Pipe Rolls. Those were the days of abbre viations as can be seen by an examina tion of the reports of the old cases decided before the year 1200 as reproduced by the Pipe Roll Society. After getting scilicet reduced to sz one can easily imagine that the law of least resistance caused the tired scriveners to drop off the bottom loop of the z. As an argument in favor of the theory just propounded, a study of the word videlicet, which seems to have been a twin sister of scilicet, would be very interest ing and instructive were there space for it. It seems that in the early days scilicet and videlicet were used inter changeably.21 In modern times, how ever, scilicet has dropped out of use except in the form ss, while videlicet (viet), in our modern abbreviated form viz., has grown in favor. S* Though we do not know the history in detail of the change of scilicet to ss there is no question but that the ss, so univer sally used in writing a venue, is an abbreviation of scilicet. In at least one modern case 22 we find set instead of ss, and a venue with the words to wit in place of ss is of common occurrence.23 20 Introd. to the Study of the Pipe Rolls, Vol. 3, p. 3. Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treas ury of His Majesty's Exchequer, Vol. 3, p. 239, Year 32 Edw. III. An Etymological Diet, of the English Language by Rev. Walter W. Skeat, tit. "videlicet." The Stanford Diet, of Anglicised Words and Phrases. (Fennell's Ed.), tit. "videlicet." 21 Sel. Soc. Pub., Vol. 9, pp. 27, 58. "Barry v. Crowley (1846), 4 Gill. (Md.) 194. 28 Chitty on Pleading, p. 279 et seq. Joddercll v. Cowell, Lee's Cases, temp. Hardwicke.
