e/Lawless Court

Information
has gloss	eng: The Lawless Court, formally the Kings Court of the Manor of Kings Hill was an English court that began meeting in Kings Hill, Rochford, so called because of the "lawless" time at which it met (midnight). According to tradition, the court was first created some time before 1661, after the Lord of the Manor of Kings Hill was woken by a cock crowing, to discover a group of his vassals planning to murder him. Interrupting them, he convicted them of treason, for which their lands would be forfeit. As an act of clemency, he declared that they would be allowed to keep their lands in a state of "shameful service". Each year, the day the plot was discovered (the Wednesday after Old Michaelmas Day), the tenants were to assemble at midnight where the plot was discovered, where the Lords Steward would whisper out their names as quietly as possible. Those tenants who did not answer to their name would be fined double rent for every hour they failed to do so. The tenants were then obliged to wait there until a cock crowed three times, at which point they were dismissed.
lexicalization	eng: Lawless Court
instance of	c/Court systems in England and Wales