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quit must be given after, and not before the expiration of the term. 2. The lease did not expire till midnight, and possession was demanded in the preceding afternoon.

Mr.

Lord Chief Justice De Grey was of opinion, that the notice to quit might be previous to the expiration of the term. It prevented surprise, and was most for the benefit of both landlord and tenant. Justice Blackstone said, that a notice or requisition to the tenant to quit at the end of his term, implied that it must be previous. It would be absurd, because impossible to be complied with, to require after the expiration of the term, that the tenant should quit at the expiration. The motion was refused.

Rent no Bar

10. Although a landlord, after bringing an eject- Acceptance ment, and after the time laid in the demise, should of single agree to accept the single, instead of the double rent, to Recovery.. to which, by the statute, he is entitled; yet he Gilder will not be thereby precluded from recovering in the ejectment,

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Cowp. 245.

8 East. 358.

11. It was held, in a modern case, that where a Cobb v. demise is for a certain time, no notice to quit is Stokes, necessary at or before the end of the term, to put an end to the tenancy. That a demand of possession, and notice in writing, &c. are necessary to entitle the landlord to double rent or value. That such demand may be made for that purpose six weeks afterwards, if the landlord have done no act in the mean time to acknowledge the continuation of the tenancy: and he will thereupon be entitled to double value, as from the time of such demand, if the tenant holds over.

12. By the statute 11 Geo. II. c. 19. § 18., reciting Tenants that great inconveniences had happened to landlords, giving Notice to quit, and whose tenants had power to determine their leases, after holding by their giving notice to quit, and yet refusing to ever, to pay

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double Rent.

Timmins v.
Rowlinson,
1 Black. R.
533.
3 Burr.
1603.

deliver up the possession, when the landlord hath agreed with another tenant for the same; it is enacted-"That in case any tenant or tenants shall give notice of his, her, or their intention to quit the premises by him, her, or them holden, at a time mentioned in such notice, and shall not accordingly deliver up the possession thereof at the time in such notice contained; that then the said tenant or tenants, his, her, or their executors or administrators, shall from thenceforward pay to the landlord or landlords, lessor or lessors, double the rent or sum which he, she, or they should otherwise have paid."

13. It was resolved in a modern case, that this act is not confined to those tenants who have a clause in their leases enabling them to quit at the end of seven, eleven, or fourteen years, upon giving notice; but also to parol leases for a year. And that a parol notice was sufficient, because the statute did not require a written one.

TITLE X.

COPYHOLD.

CHAP. I.

Of the Nature of Copyholds.

CHAP. II.

Of Copyhold Grants.

CHAP. III.

Of the Incidents to Copyholds.

CHAP. IV.

Of Fines and Heriots.

CHAP. V.

Of the Forfeiture of Copyholds.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Extinguishment and Suspension of Copyholds.

CHAP. I.

Of the Nature of Copyholds.

2. Description of.

6. Free Copyholders.

10. Circumstances necessary to

their Existence.

11. A Manor.

13. A Court.

24. The Things granted must be Parcel of the Manor.

25. And demised or demisable by

Copy.

40. What may be granted by Copy.

46. Copyholders may have Estates in Fee.

47. And Estates Tail.

51. And Estates for Life.
53. No general Occupancy of
Copyholds.

54. But special Occupancy is al-
lowed.
58. Copyhold Customs.

33. What destroys the Custom of 61. How proved.

granting.

64. Copyhold Jurisdictions.

WE

SECTION 1.

E now come to treat of those estates which are derived from immemorial custom and usage, Dissertation, and called copyholds. But having already discussed c. 3. §51. the origin and nature of copyhold tenures, it will here only be necessary to consider the properties of the estates thus held.

Description of, § 73.

Lit. § 77.

2. "Tenant by copy of court roll (says Littleton) is, as if a man be seised of a manor, within which manor there is a custom, which hath been made time out of mind of man, that certain tenants within the same manor have used to have lands and tenements, to hold to them and their heirs in fee simple, or fee tail, or for term of life, &c. at the will of the lord, according to the custom of the same manor."

3. A copyhold estate may therefore be described to be a parcel of the demesnes of a manor, held at the will of the lord, according to the custom of the manor, by a grant from the lord, and an admittance of the tenant, entered on the rolls of the manor

court.

4. The title of copyholders to their estates was originally deemed so precarious, that it was held in the reign of Edw. IV., that if the lord ousted his 4 Rep. 21 b. copyholder, he had no other remedy but to sue him by petition. It was however laid down by Danby, Chief Justice of the C. B. in 7 Edw. IV., and by his successor, that a copyholder, observing the customs of the manor, and performing his services, should, if put out by the lord, have an action of trespass against him. A doctrine which has long been fully esta blished; For, as Lord Coke says, "albeit he is tenant ad voluntatem domini; yet it is, secundum consuetudinem manerii."

1 Inst. 60 b. 9 Rep. 76 b.

5. Copyhold estates are, however, still said to be held at the will of the lord; and this position is so far true, that the freehold of all lands held by this tenure is vested in the lord. The copyholder's estate is not so great as even an estate for years. The will of the lord is not however arbitrary, as it formerly was, but must be conformable to the customs of the

manor.

holds.

6. It has been already stated, that there is a species Free Copyof copyhold which is held according to the custom of Dissertation, the manor, not at the will of the lord; called a free c. 3. § 57. copyhold, or customary freehold. It was formerly held that the freehold of these was in the tenant ; Stephenson from which they derived the appellation of customary v. Hill, freeholds. But it is now fully settled that the 3 Burr. 1273.

freehold is in the lord.

7. At the great election for Oxfordshire in the year 1754, a question arose whether free copyholders, holding according to the custom of the manor, and not at the will of the lord, were entitled to vote. Sir William Blackstone has written a tract on this subject, intitled Considerations on copyholders. In which he contends that copyholders, of this kind were not, by the old law, entitled to vote for knights of the shire; because they were in fact villein sockmen, whose services were base and servile, though reduced to a certainty; and therefore their estates were not comprised under the denomination of free lands or tenements, or freehold, within the meaning of the statute of Hen. VI.; and this opinion is established as law by the statute 31 Geo. II. c. 14., which enacts, that no person who holds his estate by copy of courtroll shall be entitled to vote at the election of a knight of the shire.

US

Roe v.
Conolly,
5 East, 51.

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