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regulation in the Statute of Marlborough of 1267 and the
legislation of Edward I. Thomas Andrew, at one time bailiff of
Scray, took 4s. from the tithing of Ewell to remit a
distraint made because of a summons to Greenwich, probably to
attend a session of the royal justices. When William de
Lodeneford came to the county court with Twyford hundred, Henry
de Malemains, then sheriff, arrested him because of a dispute in
his house. He paid a fine of 10s. He had found pledges
for payment and later Henry seized Richard de Henhurst’s horse
for the money. At the present time, the sheriff was distraining
William for the 10s. The activities of seigniorial
bailiffs were also reported. Elias son of Emma, bailiff of the
prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, maliciously distrained
Thomas le Becke and Robert de Rygge who lost £5 and £2
respectively.30
The sheriff collected the king’s debts, the ‘summons
of the green wax’, which were listed and sent to the county by
the Exchequer. Problems arose when the money was allegedly
collected and not paid to the Exchequer. Walter de Berksted was
said to have taken £2 from Bleangate hundred for the chattels
of the felon, Andrew de Blengat’, but the hundred had to pay
the money again since it did not receive its quittance (receipt)
from Walter. The sheriff, Henry Malemains, took two marks from
the tenants of Chilham for a respite in paying their eyre
amercements at the Exchequer until they paid his account; he
then immediately issued a royal summons against them.31
Sheriffs and bailiffs were not the only officials
said to oppress the county. Coroners were established in 1194
when three knights and one clerk were to be chosen in the county
as keepers of the pleas of the Crown until they should be
determined at the next eyre. In contrast to the sheriff who was
a royal appointee, coroners were always chosen locally. In
thirteenth-century Kent, it is likely that they were responsible
for a particular area. The coroner, William de Crioill, was said
to be unwilling to come to the hundreds of Newchurch, Ham, Worth
and Aloesbridge and to Langport half hundred, so people who had
been killed could not be buried. In 1313-14, the coroner was
usually responsible for a lathe.32 The coroner held
inquests into sudden deaths; he also went to sanctuaries to hear
the abjuration, the oath to leave England for ever, and to
assign the abjuror a port of embarkation. Coroners were accused
of taking money to carry out their duties. Robert de Borminge
took half a mark from Brenchley hundred so that Adam But could
be buried. John de St Clare, a coroner in Henry III’s reign,
took 4s. from the men of Grain before he was willing to
deliver two felons from Grain Church who had fled there after
the death of Adam de Stretende.33
At the time of the Hundred Rolls, there were only
two escheators in England, one north and one south of the River
Trent. Master Richard de Clifford who figures largely in the
Kent Hundred Rolls held office south of the Trent between 1270
and 1274. The escheator was responsible for land
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