court of the marshalsea

Court of the Marshalsea (mahr-sh[schwa]l-see). Hist. A court that moved about with the king, and had jurisdiction over certain cases arising within 12 miles of the king’s residence (an area known as the verge). • The Court’s steward and marshal acted as judges of the Court, and heard criminal cases and the common pleas of debt, covenant, and certain trespasses. The Court’s migratory nature made it inconvenient for litigants, and prompted its abolition in 1849.

— Also termed Court of the Steward and Marshal. Cf. PALACE COURT.

“Coke points out that all the Acts passed concerning this court restrained, or explained, but never added to its jurisdiction. He decided, in the Case of the Marshalsea, that it could not try the newer forms of action such as assumpsit and trover. Its once general jurisdiction had passed to the court of King’s Bench, and the attitude of that court to the more limited court of the Marshalsea made the court of the Marshalsea almost useless. There were complaints in the seventeenth century of the conduct of its officials; and, as it was obliged to follow the king in his progresses, it was a court extremely inconvenient to use.” 1 William Holdsworth, A History of English Law 208 (7th ed. 1956).


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