SUFFOLK COUNTY•RECORDS. the Principal Justice of the Peace In
SUFFOLK COUNTY•RECORDS. The principal justice of the peace in each county is the custos rotulorum or keeper of the records ; the other justices were, formerly, custodes or conservatores pacis, who claimed their power by prescription, or were bound to exercise it by the tenure of their lands, or were chosen by the freeholders in full County Court before the sheriff. After the deposition of Edward II. the election of the conservators of the peace was taken from the people and given to the Kirig. The statute 34 Edw. III. c.1 gave the ,conservators of the peace power of trying felonies, when they acquired the appellation of justices. After 1590 they were ap- pointed to keep the peace in the particular county named, and to enquire of, and to determine .offences in such county committed. It was ordained by Statute 18 Edw. III., st. ,2, c: 2, that two or three of the best reputation in each' county shall be' assigned to be keepers of the peace. By Statute 34 Edw. III. their number was increased to four, and in the reign.of Richard II. their number in each county was eight, which number was further enlarged the growth of the number of statute laws committed from time to time to the charge of the justices of the peace. Any two or more justices of the peace are em- powered by' commissionto hear and determine offences SUFFOLK COUNTY RECORDS. 145 which is the ground of their criminal jurisdiction at Quarter Sessions. " Besides the jurisdiction which the justices of each county at large exercise, in these and other matters at Quarter Sessions, authority is moreover given by various statutes to the justices acting for the several divisions into which' counties are for that purpose distributed, to transact different descriptions of business at special sessions." The Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace is a Court that must be held in each county once in every quarter of a year.
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