CORPORATION ARCHIVES AT SOUTHAMPTON. 231

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 billmcn. There arc also a large collection of Books of the Court Leet, from the presentments at which I have made several extracts ; Toion Court Bolls of the time of Henry VI., Admiralty Court Books from 1556 to 1585, and one very curious book con- taining 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-Erench. 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 Com't 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, re- spectively. The brewers are ordered to dig no clay in the Salt- marsh, 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 Eields : and a remonstrance is entered against the sowing of ^coad in Hogland, because "the common sort of the people find themselves greatly grieved withal, for that after rcoad-soicing, 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 Com'ts Leet bear constant testimony to the desire of promoting, as far as possible, good order and good manners. Thus, in 1607, three chirmaydes were pre- sented, two of them because they had no present employment ; both were recpiired to put themselves immediately to service, or to leave tlie town." In 160S, a person named A>'arde was presented " for letting his apprentice go up and doA^Ti 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 3^. 4^. for tippling