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WHEREAS by an act of Parliament made in England in the forty second year of King Edward the third it is enacted, “That no sheriff, under-sheriff, or sheriffs-clerk, shall abide in his office above one year;” and by another act made in England in the first year of King Richard the second it is enacted, “That none, who hath been sheriff for a year, shall within three years next ensuing be chosen again, or put into the office of sheriff, if there be other persons in the county sufficient of possession and goods to answer the King and his people;” and by another act made in England in the first year of King Henry the fifth it is enacted, “That they, which be bayliffs of sheriffs for one year, shall be in no such office by three years next following, except bayliffs of sheriffs, which be inheritable in their sheriff-wicks; and that no under-sheriff, sheriffs-clerk, receiver, or sheriffs-bayliff, be attorney in any of the King's courts, during the time that he is in his office with any such sheriff;” and by another act of Parliament made in England, in the twenty third year of King Henry the sixth it is enacted, “That if any sheriff or under-sheriff, or sheriffs-clerk, occupy the office of sheriff, under-sheriff, or sheriffs-clerk, contrary to any of the said statutes, or against the effect or intent of them, he shall forfeit the sum of two hundred pounds yearly as long as he so occupieth; and that every pardon to be made for such offence or occupation shall be void; and that any liege-man who will sue for the said forfeiture shall be received and admitted to sue an action of debt in his own name; the King to have the one half of what shall be recovered by such suit, and he or they that will sue to have the other half;” all which acts are of force in this kingdom: and whereas the said acts have been notoriously eluded by under-sheriffs, sheriffs-clerks, deputies, and bayliffs, continuing in their offices for several years together, one year as under-sheriff, other as sheriffs-clerk or deputy, receiver or bayliff, and by taking the said offices by turns, and in other persons names in trust, and receiving the profits for their own use, which hath been the occasion of much corruption, delay of justice, oppression of the subjects, and other mischiefs: for remedy whereof, and for the better and more effectual execution of such wholsome and necessary laws, be it enacted and declared by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all and every the laws and statutes now in force for or touching the execution of the office of under-sheriff or sheriffs-clerk, or not hereby altered or repealed, shall be duly put in execution according to the tenor of the said laws, and under the penalties therein contained, as by the said laws are directed.[a
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