142. Indictment for feloniously personating another person, and becoming bail in his name before a commissioner of the court of Common Pleas appointed to take bail in the country (z). That on, &c. our said lord the king, by his writ of capias issued out of the court of our said lord the king, of Common Pleas at Westminster, bearing date the same day and year, directed to the sheriff of did command the said sheriff, that he should take C. D. late of , yeoman, and J. D. if they should be found in his bailiwick, and them safely keep, so that he might have their bodies before the justices of our said lord the king, at Westminster, in three weeks from the day of St. (z) By stat. 4 Will. & M. ch. 4. s. 4. (entitled, "An Act for taking special Bails in the Country, upon Actions and Suits depending in the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, at Westminster,") it is enacted, that if any person or persons shall (before any person or persons empowered by virtue of that act to take bail or bails) represent or personate any other person or persons, w whereby the person or persons so represented and personated, may be liable to the payment of any sum or sums of money, for debt or damages to be recovered in the same suit or action, wherein such person or persons are represented and personated, as if he or they had really acknowledged and entered into the same, being lawfully convicted convicted thereof, shall be adjudged, esteemed, and be taken to be felons, and suffer as such. By stat. 21 Jac. 1. c. 26. all persons who shall acknowledge or procure to be acknowledged, any fine or fines, recovery or recoveries, deed or deeds inrolled, statutes, recognizances, bail, or judgment, in the name of any person or persons not privy or consenting to the same, and being thereof lawfully convicted or attainted, shall incur the penalties of such felons without benefit of clergy. A bail before a judge was not bail within this statute, till it was filed of record, and if it was not filed, the acknowledging thereof in another's name was not felony but a misdemeanor only; but now it is felony by stat. 4 Will. & M. c. 4. Vide 27 Geo. 3. c. 43. respecting special bail at Chester. St. 4 Geo. 3. c. 46. s. 5. as to co palatine of Lancaster. day of Michael, to answer to E. F. of a plea that (according to the exigency of the writ,) which said writ afterwards, and before the delivery thereof to the said sheriff of the said county of to be executed on, &c., at, &c. was duly marked and indorsed for bail for the sum of -7. according to the form of the statute (a)in such case made and provided, and which said writ, so indorsed, af-terwards, and before the return thereof, to wit, on, &c. at, &c. was delivered to G. H. esq. then sheriff of the county aforesaid, in due form of law to be executed, which said G. H. sheriff of the county aforesaid, by virtue of the writ aforesaid, afterwards, and before the return thereof, to wit, on the said in the year aforesaid, and within his bailiwick as such sheriff, to wit, at, &c. did take and arrest the said C. D. in the said writ and warrant above named, according to the command of the writ and warrant aforesaid, and him the said C. D. then and there had in his custody, by virtue of the said writ; and that A. B. late of, &c. yeoman, contriving and intending to prejudice and bring one S. T. to great expenses, and unlawfully to subject him the said S. T. to the payment of a great sum of money, afterwards, to wit, on, &c. at, &c. in his own proper person came before C. T. gentleman, and then and there, with force and arms, feloniously did represent and personate the person of the said S. T. of, &c. yeoman, and in the name and by the addition of him the said S. T. did become bail for the said C. D. in a certain recognizance taken before the said C. T. in the action aforesaid (he the said C. T. then and there having full and lawful power and authority, by virtue of a commission under the seal of the said court of Common Pleas, to take a recognizance in that behalf in the said county of ➖➖, according to the form of the statute in such case made and provided,) by which said recognizance he the said A. B. (by feloniously representing and personating the person of the said S. T.) in the name and by the addition of him the said S. T. as aforesaid, before the said C. T. then and there unlawfully and feloniously did acknowledge to owe to the said E. F. the sum ofl. to be levied upon the goods and chattels, lands and tenements, of him the said S. T. upon condi (a) 12 G. 1. c. 29. s. 9. tion that if the said C. D. should be condemned in the said action, he the said C. D. should pay the condemnation money, or render himself into the Fleet for the same; or if he failed so to do, he the said S. T. (meaning the said S. T. of - in the county aforesaid, yeoman, so represented and personated by the said A. B. as aforesaid) did undertake to do it for him (meaning the said C. D.) whereby he the said S. T. so represented and personated as aforesaid, might have been liable to the payment of the said sum of ———. to be recovered in the same action, as if he had reaily himself acknowledged and entered into the said recognizance, against the form, &c. and against the peace, &c. 143. Indictment at common law for forging a writ of fieri facias, and thereby taking a person's goods in execution. That L. Y. late of, &c. gentleman, falsely, unlawfully, and wickedly devising, contriving, and intending one A. K. late of the same parish and county, yeoman, unjustly, maliciously, and injuriously to aggrieve, oppress, and impoverish, on, &c. with force and arms, at, &c. unlawfully, knowingly, subtilly, and falsely did forge and counterfeit a certain writing, engrossed on parchment, in form and to the likeness and similitude of a writ of our lord the king of fieri facias, whose tenor follows, that is to say, (set out the forged writ accurately.) And the jurors, &c. that the said L. Y. afterwards, to wit, on, &c. at, &c. the said false, forged, and counterfeit writing, falsely forged, purporting to be a writ of fieri facias, subtilly, falsely, knowingly, and deceitfully did pronounce and publish; and then and there, to wit, on the same, &c. at, &c.* subtilly, falsely, knowingly, and deceitfully, as a true writ of our said lord the king of fieri facias, did cause to be delivered to the then sheriff of for execu tion to be made thereof; and afterwards, to wit, on, &c. at, &c. did cause to be seized and taken divers goods and chattels of the said A. K. by pretence of that writ, to the great damage and oppression of the said A. K. and against the peace, &c. (Second count, for publishing.) A certain false, forged, and counterfeit writing, engrossed on parchment, falsely forged, in form and to the likeness and similitude of a writ of our said lord the king of fieri facias, issuing out of the said court of our said lord the king of Common Pleas, unlawfully and deceitfully did pronounce and publish as a true writ of our said lord the king, whose tenor follows, that is to say, (set out the writ,) although he the said L. Y. then and there well knew the same to be false, forged, and counterfeited, and the same then and there, to wit, on, &c. at, &c. (as in the first count, from the *.) PERJURY. 144. Indictment for PERJURY (b) at Chester assizes, in giving evidence on the trial of a felon. Cheshire. The jurors for our lord the king upon their (b) But by stat. 5 Eliz. c. 9. s. 3. if any person or persons shall unlawfully and corruptly procure any witness or witnesses, by letters, rewards, promises, or by any other sinister and unlawful labour or means whatsoever, to commit any wilful and corrupt perjury, in any matter or cause whatsoever depending in suit and variance by any writ, action, bill, complaint, or information, in any wise touching or concerning any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any goods, chattels, debts, or damages, in any of the courts therein mentioned, (being of almost every description, except the ecclesiastical courts ;) or shall unlawfully and corruptly procure or suborn any witness or witInesses, which shall be sworn to testify in perpetuam rei memo¬ riam, then every such offender or offenders shall, for his, her, or their said offence, being thereof lawfully convicted or attainted, lose and forfeit the sum of forty pounds. By s. 4. Persons so convicted or attainted, not having goods or other property to the value of the penalty, shall suffer imprisonment for the space of half a year, and stand upon the pillory, for one hour, in some market-town next adjoining to the place where the offence was committed. s. 5. Those convicted shall not be received as witnesses in any court of record, until such time as the judgment given against them be reversed, by attaint or otherwise, and upon every such reversal the parties oath present, that at the court of session and goal-delivery of our sovereign lord the king, holden for the county grieved shall recover their damages, &c. (as in the next section.) * s. 6. One convicted or attainted of perjury by his deposition &c. shall forfeit twenty pounds, and be imprisoned for the space of six months; and the oath of such person shall not be received in any court of record until the judgment be reversed, by attaint or other wise; and upon every such reversal the party grieved shall recover his damages against the person who procured the said judgment so reversed to be given against him, by an action on the case. s. 7. If the offender has not goods sufficient to satisfy the twenty pounds, he shall be set on the pillory, in some marketplace, near, &c. and there to have both his ears nailed, and from thenceforth be disabled from being sworn in any court of record, until such time as the judgment shall be reversed, upon which he shall recover his damages as before mentioned. s. 9. As well the judge and judges of every of the courts where any such suit is or shall be, and whereupon any such perjury is or shall be committedt, as also the justices of assize and goal delivery in their several circuits, and the justices of the peace in every county within this realm, or in Wales, at their quarter-sessions, both within liberties and without, shall have full power and authority to inquire of all offences and defaults committed contrary to this act, by inquisition, presentment, bill, or information, or otherwise lawfully to hear and determine the same, and to give judgment, award process, and execution of the same, according to the course of the laws of this realm. The stat. 2 Geo. 2. c. 25. s. 2. (made perpetual by the st. 8 G. 2. c. 18.) enacts, that, besides the punishment already to be inflicted by law for so great crimes, it shall and may be lawful for the court or judge, before whom any person shall be convicted of wilful and corrupt perjury, or subornation of perjury, according to the laws now in being, to order such person to be sent to some house of correction, *This is good cause of challenge, if he be a juror. 2 Haw. c. 43. s. 25. A defendant under this charge may, upon his own confession that an affidavit made by him was false, be put in the pillory by the authority of the court in which the affidavit was made. Thorowgood's case, s Mod. 179. Justices of the peace have no jurisdiction over perjury at common law. R. v. Yarrington, Salk. 406. 2 Haw. c. 9. s. 38. |