The  earliest  Itinerant  or  Justices  Errant  were  the  Justices  in  Eyre,
probably  so  called  from  the  old  French  word  erre,  or  the  verb  errer,
to  wander  or  rove,  &o.,  and  they  held  criminal  and  common  pleas,  and
also  pleas  of  the  forest ;  but  these  afterwards  gave  place  to  the  Com-
missioners of  Assize  or  Circuit  Judges.  The  Justices  in  Eyre  then
became  only  Justices  of  the  Forests.  There  were  no  Justices  in  Eyre
appointed  after  10  Edw.  III.  except  to  hear  Pleas  of  the  Forest.
(Spence  I.  116.)

It  is  stated  by  Mr.  Hardy,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Close  Rolls,
p.  xxiv.  note  3,  "  that  there  is  unquestionable  evidence,  the  Pipe  Roll
"  in  the  Exchequer,  that  there  had  been  Itinerant  Justices  to  hear  and
"  determine  civil  and  criminal  pleas  in  18  Hen.  I.,  and  to  this  Monarch
"  the  introduction  of  such  Justices  into  England  is  to  be  attributed.
"  They  appear  to  have  been  discontinued  during  the  intestine  commotions
"  in  the  reign  of  Stephen."     See  also  Madox,  folio,  page  83.
Hen.  n.  revived  and  regularly  settled  these  Itinerant  Justices  (Justices
in  Eyre)  at  the  Council  of  Northampton,  1176  (22  Hen.  II.),  dividing
the  kingdom  into  six  circuits.
They  were  sometimes  mere  Justices  of  Assize,  or  of  Dower,  or  of
Gaol  Delivery,  and  the  like  ;  and  they  had  sometimes  a  more  general
commission  to  determine  all  manner  of  causes,  being  constituted  Jus-
ticiarii  ad  omnia  placita  ;  but  the  present  Justices  of  Assize  and  Nisi
Prius  are  more  immediately  derived  from  Stat.  Westm.  Q.,  13  Edw.  I.
