Power, - Duty, - Liability of Magistrates relative to Prisoners.
Lows and Cheesly v. Earl of Winton
1687.
June Case No. No 56.
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My Lord Winton being pursued in a subsidiary action for a debt due by one English, upon this ground, That a messenger did intimate to the defender a caption against the debtor, then in the defender's house, it was alleged for the defender, That the intimation being made a little before my Lord went to dinner, the gates were shut immediately after, according to the custom of the family; and, when dinner was over, the messenger was allowed to search, my Lord having searched by his servants; and my Lord was willing to depone he knew not that the rebel was in the house, or that any absconded, or conveyed him away.
Answered: The messenger intimated his caption to my Lord, who was looking out at the window, and the gates were, immediately thereafter, shut upon the messenger for some hours, whereas he ought to have been allowed to search presently for the rebel.
