the
county court. These were such as anciently held of the lord of the
county, and by the escheats of earldoms had fallen to the king; or
such as were granted out by service to hold of the king, but with
particular reservation to do suit and service (serve as jurors)
before the king's bailiff; _because it was necessary the sheriff, or
bailiff of the king, should have suitors_ (_jurors_) _at the county
court, that the business might be despatched. These suitors are the
pares_ (_peers_) _of the county court, and indeed the judges of it;
as the pares_ (_peers_) _were the judges in every court-baron_; and
therefore the king's bailiff having a court before him, there must be
_pares or judges, for the sheriff himself is not a judge_; and though
the style of the court is _Curia prima Comitatus E.C. Milit.'
vicecom' Comitat' praed' Tent' apud B._, &c. (First Court of the
county, E.C. knight, sheriff of the aforesaid county, held at B., &c.);
by which it appears that the court was the sheriff's; _yet, by
the old feudal constitutions, the lord was not judge, but the pares_
(_peers_) _only_; so that, even in a _justicies_, which was a
commission to the sheriff to hold plea of more than was allowed by
the natural jurisdiction of a county court, _the pares_ (_peers,
jurors_) _only were judges, and not the sheriff_; because it was to
hold plea in the same manner as they used to do in that (the lord's)
court."--_Gilbert on the Court of Exchequer_, ch. 5, p. 61-2.

"It is a distinguishing feature of the feudal system, to make civil
jurisdiction necessarily, and criminal jurisdiction ordinarily,
coextensive with tenure; and accordingly there is inseparably
incident to every manor a court-baron (curia baronum), _being a court
in which the freeholders of the manor are the sole judges_, but in
which the lord, by himself, or more commonly by his steward,
presides."--_Political Dictionary_, word _Manor_.

The same work, speaking of the county court, says: "_The judges were the
freeholders who did suit to the court._" See word _Courts_.

"In the case of freeholders attending as suitors, the county court
or court-baron, (as in the case of the ancient tenants _per baroniam_
attending Parliament,) _the suitors are the judges of the court, both
for law and for fact_, and the sheriff or the under sheriff in the
county court, and the lord or his