Ingham in Suffolk. About the same time Roger Mortimer, Earl of March,
granted to him and Roger Mareschall, esquire, the manor and park of
Standon in Hertfordshire, at farm. He was one of the King's protectors
in the latter's tenth year, and in 15 Richard II, he was one of the
Lieutenants in the court of chivalry to try the case of Lords Morley and
Lovell. His will was dated 3 February 1400. [Footnote: Blomefield, VIII,
pp. 107 ff.] The office of Justice of the Peace developed in England in
the fourteenth century. The main outlines of its growth can be indicated
by the statement of a few significant facts. In 1327 it was enacted that
"good and lawful men" be assigned to keep the peace. In 1330 they were
given power to return indictments. In 1360 one lord and with him three
or four of the most worthy of the county, with some learned in the law,
were given power to arrest malefactors, to receive indictments against
them, and to hear and determine at the King's suit all manner of
felonies and trespasses done in the county. In 1362 it was directed by
statute that the justices should hold sessions four times a year, and,
in 1388, that they should be paid four shillings a day during the
sessions. [Footnote: Summarized from Maitland's Constitutional History
and G. E. Howard. Neb. U. Studies, pp. 44, 53.] In 13* Richard II it was
enacted that the justices should be "the most efficient Knights,
esquires and gentlemen of the law" of the county. [Footnote: Though
enacted after Chaucer's time as justice, this indicates very nearly a
contemporary attitude toward the office.]

The justices of a given county were derived from three classes.
[Footnote: Encyclopaedia of Laws of England, vol. 7, p. 587.]

(a) those appointed by being named in the schedule. (The Lord Chancellor
made the appointment, usually relying upon the Lord Lieutenant, or the
custos rotulorum, of the county.)