Welsh Journals

Court Leet Records. By EVAN D. JONES, B.A., of the National Library of Wales. THE National Library of Wales is privileged to house many thou- sands of manorial records from every county in Wales. Some counties are represented by stray rolls from as early as the thirteenth century, and others by a number of series of documents which are remarkably complete through several centuries. Cardiganshire is, in this respect, less fortunate than some of its neighbours, for example, Pembrokeshire, which is represented by the records of the barony of Kemes, or Montgomeryshire, which is so well covered by the Powis Castle and Wynnstay collections. Only three Car- diganshire manors are represented by anything like a tolerably continuous series of records, and as these series reach back no further than the middle of the eighteenth century, they only serve to illustrate the decline and disappearance of leet jurisdiction. They are the records of the manors of Lampeter1, 1741-1814, Ysbyty Ystrad Meurig2, 1784-1813, and Llanddewibrefi3, 1834-69. I cannot attempt to trace the history of the rise of leet juris- diction in Cardiganshire, though the subject suggests a number of alluring problems. It would be interesting to find the connection between the sheriff's tourn as it is outlined in the Statute of Wales, 1284, and the courts which Mr. Frank Lloyd still holds for manors in Cardiganshire which preserve the names of some of the commotes which the mediaeval sheriff had to visit twice a year. The meaning of the term view of frankpledge when applied to Cardiganshire manors is another problem which invites investigation. The court at Llanddewibrefi is described as a court leet and court baron and view of frankpledge of our sovereign lord the King and the court baron of the Lord Bishop of St. David's. In Ystrad Meurig the court is known as the court leet or law day with view of frank- pledge. At Lampeter view of frankpledge is used as a synonym for court leet. The original purpose of holding a view of frankpledge was to see that every man was in a tithing pledged for mutual good behaviour. This was one of the duties of a sheriff in his tourn of the English hundreds, but in the instructions laid down in the Statute of Wales for the making of tourns in the commotes of the Principality there is no mention of the view of frankpledge. It is evident that Edward I had no intention of introducing the English system of frankpledge into Wales. The sheriff's tourn was the king's court held by the sheriff, as his representative, to the profit of the king. The court leet, as is implied by the descriptions taken from the headings of the court rolls of Llanddewibrefi, was also the