[other is a rent or render, both tending to some purpose relative to the king's person (i). Petit serjeanty, as defined by Littleton, consists in holding lands of the king by the service of rendering to him annually some small implement of war, as a bow, a sword, a lance, an arrow, or the like (j). This, he says, is but socage in effect; only being held of the king, it is by way of eminence dignified with the title of parvum servitium regis, or petit serjeanty (k). And Magna Carta respects it in this light, when it enacts, that no wardship of the lands or body shall be claimed by the king, in virtue of a tenure by petit serjeanty (1).

Tenure in burgage is described by Glanvil, and is expressly said by Littleton, to be but tenure in socage (m); and it is where the king or other person is lord of an antient borough, in which the tenements are held by a rent certain (n). And it is indeed only a kind of town socage. Many of these tenements so held in antient burgage are subject to a great variety of customs: the principal and most remarkable of which is that called Borough-English, so named in contra-distinction (as it were) to the Norman customs, and which is taken notice of both by Glanville (o), and by Littleton (p). By this custom, the youngest son, and not the eldest, succeeds to the burgage tenement on the death of his father. For which Littleton gives this reason, namely, that the younger son, by reason of his tender age, is not so capable as the rest of his brethren to help himself (q). Other special customs there are in different burgage tenures; as that, in some, the wife shall be endowed of all her husband's tenements, and not of the third part only (r); and that, in others, a man might dispose of his tenements

[by will (s), which, in general was not permitted, after the Conquest, till the reign of Henry the Eighth (t).]

Gavelkind is principally met with in the county of Kent, where all lands are presumed to be subject to that custom (u); but it is also found elsewhere. To account for this it should be recollected, that the Kentish men obtained concessions from the Conqueror, by the effect of which they were permitted to retain their ancient liberties; and we may fairly conclude that this custom was a part of those liberties. [The distinguishing properties of this tenure are:-1. The tenant at the age of fifteen can aliene his estate by feoffment (x). 2. The estate did not escheat in case of attainder and execution for felony; the maxim being, "the father to the bough, the son to the plough" (y). 3. In most places. the tenant had a power of devising lands by will, before the statute for that purpose was made (z). 4. The lands descend, not to the eldest, youngest, or any one son only, but to all the sons together (a); which was indeed. antiently the most usual course of descent all over England (b). These, among other properties, distinguished this tenure in a most remarkable manner; and yet it is said to be only a species of a socage tenure, modified by the custom of the country.

C. From the tenure of pure villenage have sprung our present copyhold tenures, or tenure by copy of court roll at the will of the lord; in order to obtain a clear idea of which it will be previously necessary to take a short view of the origin and nature of manors.

Manors are in substance as antient as the Saxon (s) S. 167.

(≈) F.N.B. 198 querelâ); Launder (1639) Cro. Car. 561.

(a) Litt. s. 210.

(ex gravi V. Brooks,

(b) Glanv. lib. 7, ch. 3. (This passage by no means warrants the whole of Blackstone's somewhat sweeping statement.-E. J.)

[constitution, though perhaps differing a little from those which exist at the present day (c). A manor, manerium, seems to have been a district of ground held by lords or great personages; who kept in their own hands so much land as was necessary for the use of their families, which were called terræ dominicales or demesne lands, being occupied by the lord or dominus manerii and his servants. The other, or tenemental, lands they distributed among their tenants; some of whom held in free socage (d) and others in villenage (e), which we shall presently describe more at large. The residue of the manor, being uncultivated, was termed the lord's waste, and served for public roads, and for common of pasture to the lord and to his tenants. Manors were formerly called baronies, as they still are called lordships; and each lord or baron was empowered to hold a domestic court, called the court baron, for redressing misdemeanors and nuisances within the manor, and for settling disputes of property among the tenants. And if several manors were held under one great baron, his seignory over them was termed an honor.

Villenage was a species of tenure neither strictly feudal, Norman, nor Saxon, but mixed and compounded of them all (f). Under the Saxon government, there were, as Sir William Temple speaks (g), a sort of people used and employed in the most servile works, and belonging, both they, their children, and effects, to the lord of the soil, like the rest of the cattle or stock upon it. On the arrival of the Normans here, it seems not improbable that they, who were strangers to any other than a feudal state, might give some sparks of enfranchisement to such wretched persons as fell to their share, by admitting them, as well as others, to the oath of fealty; which conferred a right of protection, and raised the tenant to a kind

(c) Co. Cop. 2, 10.

(d) Ibid. 31.

(e) Ibid. 12, 14.

(f) Wright, Tenures, 215.
(y) Introd. Hist. Eng. 58.

[of estate superior to downright slavery, but inferior to every other condition (h). This they called villenage, and the tenants villeins, either from the word rilis, or else (as Sir Edward Coke tells us) a villâ, because they lived chiefly in villages, and were employed in rustic works of the most sordid kind (i), like the Spartan helotes, to whom alone the culture of the lands was consigned; their rugged masters, like our northern ancestors, esteeming war the only honourable employment of mankind.

These villeins, belonging principally to lords of manors, were either villeins regardant, that is, annexed to the manor or the land; or else they were in gross, or at large, that is, annexed to the person of the lord, and transferable by deed from one owner to another (k). They could not leave their lord without his permission; but, if they ran away, or were purloined from him, might be claimed and recovered by action, like beasts or other chattels. They held, indeed, small portions of land, by way of sustaining themselves and families; but it was at the mere will of the lord, who might dispossess them whenever he pleased; and it was upon villein services, that is, to carry out dung, to hedge and ditch the lord's demesnes, and any other the meanest offices (); and their services were not only base, but uncertain, both as to their time and quantity (m).. A villein could acquire no property, either in lands or goods; but, if he purchased either, the lord might enter upon them, oust the villein, and seize them to his own use, unless he contrived to dispose of them again before the lord had seized them; for the lord had then lost his opportunity (n).

In many places, also, a fine was payable to the lord, if the villein presumed to marry his daughter to any one without leave from the lord (o); and, by the common law,

(h) Wright, Tenures, 217.

(2) Co. Litt. 116 a.

(k) Litt. s. 181.

(1) Ibid. s. 172.

(m) Bracton, L. 4, ch. 28, 35. (n) Litt. s. 177.

(0) Co. Litt. 140 a.

[the lord might also bring an action against the husband, for damages in thus purloining his property (p). For the children of villeins were also in the same state of bondage with their parents; whence they were called in Latin nativi, which gave rise to the female appellation of a villein, who was called a neife (q). In case of a marriage between a freeman and a neife, or between a villein and a freewoman, the issue followed the condition of the father, being free if he was free, and villein if he was villein; contrary to the maxim of the civil law, that partus sequitur ventrem. But no bastard could be born a villein, because, by another maxim of our law, he is nullius filius; and as he can gain nothing by inheritance, it were hard that he should lose his natural freedom by it (r). The law, however, protected the persons of villeins, as the king's subjects, against atrocious injuries of the lord; for if the lord should kill or maim them, he was subject to indictment at the king's suit (s).

Villeins might be enfranchised by manumission, which was either express or implied; express, as where a man granted to the villein a deed of manumission (t), implied, as where a man bound himself in a bond to his villein for a sum of money, granted him an annuity by deed, or gave him an estate in fee, or for life, or for years (u); for this was dealing with a villein on the footing of a freeman. So also, if the lord brought an action against his villein, this enfranchised him (x); for as the lord might have a short remedy against his villein, by seizing his goods (which was more than equivalent to any damages he could recover), the law, which is always ready to catch at anything in favour of liberty, presumed that by bringing this action he meant to set his villein on the same footing with himself, and therefore held it an implied. manumission.

(p) Litt. s. 202. (q) Ibid. s. 186.

(r) Ibid. ss. 187, 188.

(s) Ibid. ss. 189, 194.

(1) Ibid. s. 204.

(u) Ibid. ss. 205, 206.

(x) Ibid. s. 208.