The resolutions of the judges upon the several statutes of bankrupts as also, the like resolutions upon 13 Eliz. and 27 Eliz. touching fraudulent conveyances / by T.B., Esq.

Trin. 7 Jacobi Regis.

The Case of the Admiralty.

A B••ll was preferred in the Star-Chamber against Sir Richard Hawkins, Vice-Admiral of the County of De∣von, and was charged, that one William Hull, and others, were notorious Pyrates upon the High Seas, and shewed in certain what Pyracy they had committed: That the said Sir Richard Hawkins knowing the same, did receive them, and abet, & comfort them, and for Bribes suffered them to be discharged: And what Offence that was, the Court referred to the consideration of the two Chief Ju∣stices, and Chief Baron, who heard Councel of both sides divers days at Sergeants Inne: And it was Resolved by them,

1. That the Admirals, by the Common-Law, ought not to meddle with any thing done within the Realm, but onely with things done upon the Sea: and that ap∣peareth fully by the 13 R. 2. cap. 5. and therewith agrees 2 H. 4. c. 11. and 15 H. 2. c. 3. So also, 2 H. 5. c. 6. 5 Eliz. c. 5. and this agrees with Stamf. fol. 51. 8 Ed. 2. Coron. 399. See Plo. Com. 37 b. 2 R. 3. 12. 30 H. 6. 6. by Pri∣soit.

2. It was Resolved, That the Statutes are to be in∣tended of a Power to hold Plea, not of a Power to award Execution: for notwithstanding the said Statutes, the Judge of the Admiralty may do Execution within the Body of the County: And therefore 19 H. 6. 7. the Case was W. T. at Southwark, affirmed a Plaint of Trespass in the Admiralty against J. B. of a Trespass done upon the High-Sea: Whereupon J. B. was cited to appear at the common day next ensuing; at which day, the said J. B. made default: And according to the usage of the Court, the said J. B. was amerced to 20 Marks: Whereupon Command was made to P. as Minister of the said Court, to take the Goods of the said J. B. to make agreement with the aforesaid W. T. by force of which, he, for the said 20 Marks, took 5 Cowes, and 100 Sheep, in Execution for the said Money, in the County of Ieicester. And there it is holden by Newton, and the whole Court, That the Statutes restrain the power of the Court of Admiralty, to hold Plea of a thing done within the body of the County; but they do not restrain the Execution of the same Court to be served upon the Lands. In which Case, these Points were Resolved,

1. Though the Court of Admiralty is not a Court of Record (see Brooks Error. 77. acc.) yet by Custom of the Court they may amerce the Defendant for his default, by their discretion.

2. That they may make Execution for the same, of the Goods of the Defendant, in corpore Comitatus; and if he have not Goods, may arrest his Body.

But the great question between them was, If a man commit Pyracy upon the Sea, and one knowing thereof, receive and comfort the Defendant in the Body of the County, if the Admiral, and other the Commissioners by the Act 28 H. 8. cap. 16. may proceed by Indictment and Conviction against the Receiver and Abetter, the Offence of the Accessary having his beginning within the Body of the County. And it was Resolved by them, That such a Receiver and an Abetter, by the Common-Law, could not be indicted and convicted; because the Common-Law cannot take Cognizance of the Original Offence, being done out of the Jurisdiction of the Common-Law; and where it cannot punish the Principal, it cannot pu∣nish the Accessary: And therefore Coke Chief Justice re∣ported to them a Case which was in Suffolk, 28 Eliz. where Butler and others, upon the Sea, next to the Town of Iaystoff, robbed divers of the Queens Subjects of their Goods, which they brought into Norfolk, and there were apprehended and brought before Me, then a Ju∣stice of Peace in the same County, and upon Examinati∣on, they confessed a cruel and barbarous Pyracy, and that the Goods then in their Custody, were part of the Goods which they had so robbed: And I was of Opi∣nion, that in that Case it could not be Felony punish∣able by the Common-Law, because the Original Act was not offence, whereof the Common-Law taketh know∣ledge; and then the bringing them into the County, could not make the same Felony punishable by our Law: Yet I committed them to the Gaol, untill the coming of the Justices of the Assizes: And at the next Assizes, the Opinion of Wray Chief Justice, and Perian Justices of Assize, was, agreeing with Me ut supra: and thereupon they were committed to Sir Robert Southwel, then Vice-Admiral for those Countie••: and this, in effect, agrees with Lacies Case: which see in my Reports cited in Bing∣ham's Case, 2 Rep. 93. and in Constables Case, C. 5. Rep. 107.

See, Pyracy was F••lony, 40 Ass. 25. by Schard, where a Captain of a Ship, with some English-men, robb'd the Kings Subjects upon the High Seas; and the saith, 'twas Felony in the Norman Captain, and Treason in the Eng∣lish-men, which is to be understood of Petit-Treason: and therefore in that Case, the Pyrates being taken, the Nor∣man Captain was hang'd, and the English drawn &c. hang'd; as appears by the same Book. See Stamford 10.