ou or any foure or more of you shall accordinge
to the said Statute thereupon make or sett downe that you or foure or
more of you have before Us in our Chancery with all convenient speede
. . . under the hands and seals of any foure or more of you. . . And
we also command by authoritie hereof our Sheriffe of our said County
of Stafford that at such times dayes and places as you or any foure
or more of you shall appoint to him he shall cause to come before you
or any foure or more of you such and as many honest and lawful men of
the said County as well within the liberties as without by whom the
truth in the pmisses may best be known to inquire of the pmisses upon
their Oathes as you or any foure or more of you shall require and
command him.
The Decree before referred to was signed by Sir Edward Leigh, Dr.
Zacharie Babington, William Skeffington, John Chetwynde, and Walter
Stanley, and was addressed to the Right Honourable Thomas, Lord
Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor of England. It set out the Commission and
then proceeded as follows:--
Wee therefore by verteue of the said Commission dyd award a pcept to
the Sheriffe of the said Countye to somon foure and twentye good and
lawfull men of his Baylywicke to be before Us at Lichfeilde the
xxijth day of Marche laste paste and did also send a precepte to one
Jane Lane Widdow and to Thomas Lane Esquire that claymed intereste in
the pmisses to bee before Us att the same day and place to sett forth
theire and either of theire tytles (yf they had anie) to the said
pmisses att wch daye and place by virtue of the said pcepte to the
sayde Sheriffe dyrected as aforesaid a full Jury dyd appeare and
Councell on the behalfe of Mrs. Lane and the said Thomas Lane dyd
alsoe appear before Us and thereupon wee pceeded to sweare the Jurye
who bringe sworne and chardged to inquire of the pmisses after long
evidence and examinacon of many witnesses on both pts the said Jurors
gave up theire verdicte in such sorte as by an Inquisition hereunto
annexed Sealed and subscribed (wch wee doe herewith all ctyfye unto
yor Lordshippe into the highe Courte of Chancery) maie appear; that
is to say that a pcell of pasture or land called Marchyhills alias
Bessalls in Bentley aforesaid, of ye yeerlie value of fyve pounds,
was before the fourth yeere of Kinge Edward the Sixth given to
Nich
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