“THE COURT OF DUSTY FEET”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 14 April 1939, Page 6

“THE COURT OF DUSTY FEET”

Occasionally an out-of-the-ordinary dispute or claim may set in motion legal processes which have their origins in the dim days of Britain’s birth. Few know about them save the historians and the lawyers who make them a special study. The Court of Claims which considers claims to hereditary right to serde the King in person qt his Coronation is a very old tribunal. It was in 1377, before the Coronation of Richard II that John of Gaunt as High Steward "kept his court in the White-hall of the King’s Palace at Westminster” and heard the petitions claiming service at the Coronation and to receive the fees. The same court sat in 1936 after an interval of a quarter of a century when preparations were being made for the Coronation of King Edward VIII. Only a few months later it was recommissioned by King George VI. The Court was in the high oak-panelled council chamber of the Privy Council in Downing Street. Members of the Court wore legal robes, court dress, or military uniform. and counsel wore wigs and gowns. For many hours the court listened to petitioners claiming the right, among other duties, to bear the canopies in the Coronation procession, to carry the Great Spurs, to bear the Standard of England as King’s Champion. Another body—the Court of Swainmote Attachment—meets four times a year at Lyndhurst, Hants, as it has done for 900 years, to deal with offences committed in the New Forest, and to safeguard the rights of commoners. Officers called “agisters.” dressed in Lincoln Green, execute the Court’s commands. The chairman, known as the Official Verdurer. is appointed by the King. Courts of Piepowder, also dating from ancient days, are still held in parts of the country to settle disputes at fairs and to deal with business attendant on them. One such court at Newbury (Berkshire) became known as the Court of Dusty Feet. Its charter gave the court the French name of Piedpoudre, because in early days those attending had their feet dusted with powder.

Another old court—the Medway Court of Admiralty—meets on a barge in the middle of the river at Rochester. Its chairman, the Mayor of Rochester, decides disputes about oysters and other piscatorial matters.