In English law, the justices in eyre were the highest magistrates, and presided over the court of justice-seat, a triennial court held to punish offenders against the forest law and enquire into the state of the forest and its officers (eyre, meaning "circuit", refers to the movement of the court between the different royal forests). Technically, the two justices were referred to as citra and ultra Trent (on the same side or across the River Trent), depending on where the royal court was held at the time, but are usually referred to in absolute geographical terms north and south. A holder was earlier usually referred to as a "justice of the forest" until the reign of Henry VIII, when the title of "justice in eyre" prevailed, except from 1311 to 1397, when they were usually styled "warden of the forest". However, they were "justices in eyre" in the Treason Act 1351 (under which it was high treason to kill them in the execution of their office). Henry de Bracton says that it was the practice of the justices to retire and confer with the busones of the county. In these busones we can see the persons whose names appear in the commissions of gaol delivery, oyer, and terminer, and who were in later days, as justices of the peace, to rule the county. With the decay of forest law and the lapse of the court of justice-seat, the post became a sinecure. A statute of 1817 abolished it after the decease of the current holders. List Early justices The arrangement of justices north and south of Trent did not become fixed until 1236. John Marshall (appointed 8 November 1217), justice of the forest of all England Brian de l'Isle (appointed 6 March 1220), justice of the forest of all England Hugh de Neville (appointed 29 April 1224), justice of the forest of all England Brian de l'Isle (appointed 8 October 1229), justice of the forest in the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, York, Lancaster, Derby, Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, Buckingham, Essex, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Oxford excepting the bailiwick of Thomas of Langley. John of Monmouth (appointed 8 October 1229), justice of the forest in the counties of Stafford, Salop, Worcester, Warwick, Gloucester, Hereford, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Southampton, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey, and the bailiwick of Thomas of Langley Peter d'Airvault (appointed 7 July 1232), justice of the forest of all England North of