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1375.]

THE COURT OF ADMIRALTY.

153

that, "as the master has greater charge, and is of higher rank than any other in the ship," he should have twice as much as any mariner.[1] An ordinance to this effect was apparently issued.

The oath of a juryman of the Court of Admiralty ran:—

"This hear ye, my lord the admiral, that I ... shall well and truly inquire for our lord the king, and well and truly at this time to you at this Court of the Admiralty present, as much as I have in knowledge, or may have by information of any of all my fellows, of all manner, articles, or circumstances that touch the Court of the Admiralty and law of the sea, the which shall be read to me at the time, and I thereupon sworn and charged, and of all other that may renew in my mind. And I shall relax for nothing, that is to say for franchise, lordship, kindred, alliance, friendship, love, hatred, envy, enmity, dread of loss of goods, or any other cause; that I shall so do the king's counsel, my fellows', and my own, well and truly whole, without fraud or malpractice. So God me help, and the Blessed Lady, and by this book."

A juryman was expected to be discreet; for it was ordered that:—

"If a man be indicted for that he has discovered the king's counsel and that of his companions in a jury, he shall be taken by the sheriff, or by the admiral of the court, or by other officers to whom it belongs, and brought before the admiral or his lieutenant, and afterwards arraigned upon the same indictment; and, if he be convicted thereof by twelve, he shall be taken to the next open port, and there his fault and offence shall be openly proclaimed and shown in the presence of all there, and afterwards his throat shall be cut, and his tongue drawn out by his throat and cut off from his head, if he make not ransom by fine to the king according to the discretion of the admiral or his lieutenant."

A long list of matters, into which it was the duty of a juryman of the Court of Admiralty to inquire, renders it impossible to doubt that all causes in that court were invariably tried by jury, and that Blackstone[2] was mistaken in supposing that, anterior to the time of Henry VIII., "man might be there deprived of his life by the opinion of a single judge."

At this period there were usually two admirals at a time in commission, one commanding the fleet of the ports northward and eastward of the Thames (Admiral of the North), and the other, that of the ports northward and westward of the Thames (Admiral of the West). Each had under him a vice-admiral. But thrice, during the reign of Edward III., command of all the fleets was centred in a single person, who thus became in fact, though not by official style, high admiral. These high admirals were Sir John

  1. ↑ Cited by Prynne, from the 'Black Book of the Admiralty.'
  2. ↑ 'Commentaries,' iv. 268.
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