And this is the reason why fines in the king's courts are frequently denominated ransoms, because the penalty must otherwise fall upon a man's person, unless it be redeemed or ransomed by a pecuniary fine." Tomlin's Law Dict., word Fine.
This quote explains why fines in the king's courts are often referred to as ransoms, linking them to personal penalties.
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More from Lysander Spooner
Since Magna Carta, we have evidence showing quite conclusively that all freemen, above the age of twenty-one years, were eligible as jurors.
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
Therefore all their laws, as they call them,--that is, all the laws of their own making,--have no color of authority or obligation.
Yet the codes of the most celebrated kings are very small, and were little more than compilations of immemorial customs.