villas, et plures hamlettos, quasi sub uno capite, et dominio uno.

42. These great manors, of which inferior manors

were held, are frequently called honors. Lord Coke 1 Inst. 108 a. says, an honor is the most noble seignory, and originally created by the king, but may afterwards be granted to others.

43. The practice of creating manors or tenancies in gross was effectually prevented by the statute Quia Emptores, and the statute 34 Edw. III., which have Ante, c, 2. been already stated. It is therefore said, that all § 14. manors existing at this day must have been created before these statutes were made. For it is essential Co. Cop. to a manor that there be tenants to hold of the lord; Ten. 160 %. $31. Wright, and no person since these statutes could, upon a grant of an estate in fee-simple, create a tenure of himself.

44. Lord Coke says, the king himself cannot now Cop. § 31. create a manor." If the king at this day will grant a great quantity of land to any subject, enjoining him to certain duties and services, and withal willeth that this should bear the name of a manor, yet it will not be a manor, in the estimation of the law."

stroyed.

45. As the material causes of a manor are demesnes How Manors and services, both of which are essential to its exist- are deence, because a manor must have a lord and vassals; it follows that whenever the demesnes are severed from the services, by the act of the party, the manor is destroyed. Thus it was resolved in Sir Moyle 6 Rep. 61. Finch's case, that where the demesnes of a manor are once absolutely severed, in fee-simple, from the services, by the act of the party; the manor is for ever destroyed.

46. Where the severance is by act of law, the manor may be revived. Thus in the above-mentioned

case it was agreed, that if there were two coparceners of a manor, and on a partition the demesnes were allotted to one, and the services to the other; although there was an absolute severance, yet if one died without issue, and the demesnes descended to her who had the services, the manor was revived: because on the partition they were in by act of law; and the demesnes were again united to the services by act of law.

47. Where two coparceners make partition, and part of the demesnes and services are allotted to one, and the remainder to the other; it is said that each coparcener will have a manor. In a subsequent case the Court of King's Bench held that a manor was an entire thing, and not severable.

48. Where all the freehold estates held of a manor are purchased by the lord, or devolve to him by escheat, whereby the services become extinct, and there are no tenants left, the manor is for ever destroyed. For there cannot be a manor without a court baron; and no court baron can be without two suitors at least.

49. Although many manors have been destroyed by the means above mentioned, yet they continue to be called manors; and for some purposes are still considered as such; though strictly speaking they are no more than reputed manors *.

50. It has been stated that the great division of tenures originally was, into those that were free, and those that were base; or, as Bracton expresses it, into franktenement and villenage. The tenure in villenage arose in the following manner: under the Saxons

The rights and franchises annexed to manors will be treated of in Title 27..

there was a class of people in a condition of down- Wright Ten. right servitude, belonging, both they, their children, 216, and effects, to the lord of the soil. The Normans, who were strangers to any other than a feudal state, might probably enfranchise all such wretched persons

who fell to their share, by admitting them to fealty, Lit. § 132. in respect to the little livings they had hitherto been allowed to possess; which they were still suffered to retain, upon the like services as they had formerly been bound to perform. But this possession, as now clothed with fealty, and by that means advanced into a tenure, differed materially from the antient servile possession, and was thenceforth called villenage. 51. When manors became established, the de- Copyholds. mesnes were cultivated by the lord's villeins, who were allowed to occupy some small parts of them, in order to provide for their own subsistence. Their tenure was that of pure villenage, the services were base and uncertain; and as they might be dispossessed at any time, they were said to hold at the mere will of the lord.

220.

52. The acquiescence of lords of manors to their Wright, Ten. villeins holding the lands allotted to them, as long as they performed their services, and in permitting their children to succeed them, advanced the pretensions of the villeins, in opposition to the absolute rights of the lords, so as to give them a kind of prescriptive or customary right to their possessions; which in course of time was taken notice of by the courts of justice; and, under their sanction, became at length a part of the common law.

53. As tenants of this sort had no other title to their estates but these customs, and admissions in pursuance of them, entered on the rolls of the lord's court, or copies of such entries, witnessed by the

Barr. Obs. on Stat.

steward of the manor, they were called tenants by copy of court roll; and their interest a copyhold or customary estate.

54. The first mention of this tenure is in the Extenta Manerii, made in 4 Edw. I.; which, though printed among the statutes, is only an instruction to the extender of the crown, with regard to what he was to inquire into; and upon what heads and particulars he was to make his report. The words reExtent. Man. specting copyholds are-" It is to be inquired also

§ 9.

of customary tenants, that is, to wit, how many there be, and how much land every of them holdeth; what works and customs he doth, and what the works and customs of every tenant be worth yearly; and how much rent of assise he paid yearly, beside the works and customs; and which of them may be taxed at the will of the lord, and which not."

55. There is however no mention of copyholds in the book of old tenures: some cases appear respecting them in the reign of Edward III.; and the rights of copyholders to their lands were fully settled in the

4 Rep. 21 b. time of King Edward IV.

Free Copyholds.

56. Copyholds are not affected by the statute 12 Cha. II. For it is provided by the 7th section of that act, that it shall not alter or change any tenure by copy of court roll, or any services incident there

unto.

57. There is another species of copyhold, which was formerly called privileged villenage, or villein socage; of the origin of which Bracton gives the Lib. 1. c. 11. following account.

Ante, c. 2. § 6.

Black. Cons. on Copyholders.

There were at the time of the conquest certain freemen who held their respective tenements freely, by free services, or by free customs; and being first ejected by the hand of power, they afterwards re

turned, and took their own tenements again, to be held in villenage, doing therefore services that were base and servile, but certain and expressed by name. These are called ascriptitious to the soil, and yet are freemen, though they perform villein services; since they perform them, not in respect of their persons, but in respect of their tenures.

58. Tenants of this kind hold by copy of court roll. Their admittances however are not, as in common copyholds, to hold at the will of the lord, but to hold according to the custom of the manor: from whence they have been called free copyholders, or customary freeholders.

59. Sir W. Blackstone, in his Considerations on Copyholders, concludes with observing, that however the lawyers may at times have denominated these Vide Tit. 10. tenures a base species of freehold, in contradistinction c. 1. to mere copyholds; yet the law, in the main, regards them as being properly copyhold, and not freehold tenures; else they would not have subsisted at this day for they must otherwise have been involved in the general fate of the rest of our antient tenures; when by the statute 12 Cha. II. they were all abolished, and reduced to 'socage,

:

moign.

60. There remains but one more kind of tenure, Tenure in which is of a spiritual nature, and called frankalmoign, Frankallibera elymosina, or free alms; whereby a religious corporation, aggregate or sole, may hold lands to them and their successors for ever.

61. The services due for this tenure are purely Lit. § 135. spiritual; therefore the tenants are not bound to do fealty; because the service reserved is of a higher nature; and because the word frankalmoign excludes all temporal service.