Note 351 — Chapter III · OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND

“Year Books of Edward I,” year 30–31, p. 515. Sometimes a man would profit by the absence of an enemy on the continent and affirm to a magistrate that he was in flight, and cause him to be declared an outlaw; thus the priest, John Crochille, complains to parliament of having been unjustly outlawed during a journey which he had made to the Court of Rome, in 1347 (“Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 178); the priest, Robert of Thresk, is also declared outlaw during his absence from the kingdom, “by the malice of his accusers” (ibid., 1347, vol. ii. p. 183). John of Gaunt orders the restitution of his goods to “nostre tenant neif, Johan Piers,” whose belongings had been seized, “à cause q’il deust estre utlagé, à ce q’est dit, et ore il nous est certifié par recorde, q’il n’est pas utlagé.” Oct. 12, 1374. “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. Armitage Smith, document 1544.