Note 514 — Chapter XIII · WILLIAM THE LION—1165–1214.

Assize Will. 12. Assize David 12. In David’s time it was frequently “the royal judge” who sat in the lesser courts. The sheriffdom was not universally established, at any rate, before the close of his reign. From the wording of his enactment, “prepositus vel ballivus ville,” it would appear that before his reign every “lord of a vill,” in other words, every “lord of the manor,”—or his equivalent—had the power of life and death.