Posse comitatus

in law, signifies the power of the county, or the aid and a istance of all the knights, gentlemen, yeomen, labourers, servants, apprentices, . and all others within the county that are above the age of fifteen, except women, ecclesiastical persons, and such as are decrepit and infirm. ‘This po e comitatus is to be raised where a riot is com- Mitted, a po e ion kept upon a foreible en- try, or any force of rescue used contrary to the king's writ, or in opposition to the execution ‘of justice; and it is the duty of all sheriffs to a ist justices of the peace in the suppre ion of riots, . and to raise the po e comitatus, or to charge any number of men for that pur- ose.