Y Cymmrodor. v. XIV. 1901.

6 English Law in Wales and the Marches.
uiinster had 110 jurisdiction, but justice was to be adniinis-
tered in accordance with the King's original writs and the
provisions of the Statute. It is stated that the laws and
customs of Wales had been examined by the King, of
which, some he had abolished, some allowed, and some
corrected, others he had added. The editor of Reeves'
History of English Law, points out in a note that although
the object of the Statute was to assimilate the Welsh laws
and institutions to the English, there was not found much
in the former which required alteration, and draws the
inference that the laws of the conquerors and the con-
quered were alike derived from the R-oman law ;
he gives
instances where the laws of the " Romanized Britons of
Wales" could show a marked superiority over those of the
Anglo-Normans. In civil actions the Welsh procedure
was made by the Statute substantially the same as the
English ;
the Welsh equivalent for gavelkind was allowed
to remain, but bastards were debarred from a share in the
inheritance; women were to be entitled to dower, in the
sense of the endowment of the wife by the husband; and
the coheiresses were to share equally.
The itinerant justiciary of Snowdon appointed by the
Statute afterwards gave place to the Justices of North
Wales and West Wales, who held their courts of Chancery
and Exchequer at Carnarvon and Carmarthen respectively,
in which all pleas of the Crown and the most important
causes were heard and determined, and from which there
was no appeal to the courts of Westminster. At these
superior courts were granted the mises, being payments to
every new prince on his creation for the allowance of their
Laws and ancient customs and for the pardon of offences.
No shires were appointed by the Statute, but the several
groups of coinmotes were in North Wales, in time, welded
into a county, and the Sheriff held his County Courts