1 1 1 "Examination of an Infer iptwn

in that prince's reign." But the citation is fo loofe that it cannot be deduced from it, where the perfon named difcharged this office of a juror, or where he refided. The anecdote is related by Philipott in his account of Bayhall Manor in Pembury, and by Hafted under the manor of Prefton and Allington. To Thomas Colepeper, by whofe direction the numerals 1103 were affixed to the barn and oafthoufe, fuppofmg them to fpecify a year (and they can hardly be otherwise conftrued) they muft have marked what he deemed an important era in his family ; for be- fore my late excellent friend Dr. Jofeph Milner improved this feat, and took down a high wall that was in the front of it, there were two more infcriptions bearing the fame date. One of them, a* mentioned by Mr. Hafted, was on a chimney, the other, as noticed by Dr. Harris, on an old ftone-portal on the left hand of the gate. And if the family had really inhabited this manfion five hundred years, it is not in the leaft furprifmg that a defcendant fhould be folicitous to thus perpetuate fo memorable an event. And fhould it have been his intention to apprife the many Colepeper plants which had long flourished in different parts of Kent that they were fcyons from the Prefton Hall ftem, it was a, fpice of vanity that was excufable. As the name of Colepeper does not occur in Domefday book, it ought not to be inferred that any of the family held lands in Aylef- of eminent truft and concernment, if we confider the meridian of thofe times for which it was calculated, that is before the eRMiftimentoftonfervators of the peace" " And," obferves the latter, " the 'Judges of the Great j4ffizee& an office of no fmall account in Aofe times." The Recognitores, however, were only jurors, and their inqueft was not of a criminal, but civil kind ; for the ftatute of king Henry the llnd, called AjJizM by Glanville, ordained, that under the direction of the jujlices itinerant, twelve good and lawful men, fworn to fpeak the truth, fhould make recognition whether a man died fcized of land, concerning which any doubt had arifen, and likewife de novis dijjeijinit, (Recvcs's Hiftory of the Englifh Law, V. I. p. p. 54, 56. vo edit.) ford