Common Pleas
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
THE COURT OF.
In English law
(So called because its original jurisdiction was to determine controversies between subject and subject.) One of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, presided over by a lord chief justice and five (formerly four, until 31 & 32 Vict. c. 125, § 11, subsec. 8) puisne judges. It was detached from the king's court (aula regis) as early as the reign of Richard I., and the fourteenth clause of Magna Charta enacted that it should not follow the king's court, but be held in some certain place. Its jurisdiction was altogether confined to civil matters, having no cognizance in criminal cases, and was concurrent with that of the queen's bench and exchequer in personal actions and ejectment.
Wharton.