Admittance

grants.

included in such grants will be held discharged of dower of the lord's widow (p).

Upon a voluntary grant no particular form of admiton voluntary tance is necessary, though a formal admittance is generally made in practice. It seems that no act of admission is necessary where, as in voluntary grants in remainder, no delivery of possession is practicable at the time of the grant, and that on the death of the particular tenant the tenant in remainder may enter without any further ceremony, the grant giving him a perfect legal title without admittance (q).

Surrender and

admittance.

II. SURRENDER AND ADMITTANCE.

The tenancy of a copyhold cannot be transferred without the lord's assent, which may be refused when the proposed conveyance is improper in form or prejudicial to his interest. Copyholds of the ordinary kind are conveyed by surrender and admittance, or by some statutory assurance made with the lord's concurrence which is to the same effect. Customary freeholds are frequently alienable by deeds of grant or of bargain and sale, in some cases followed by a regular surrender and admittance, in others merely confirmed by the lord's licence indorsed; and in a few instances the alienation is completed according to the local usage by a mere substitution of the names in the manor roll. But in no case can the tenancy be changed without the lord's consent ("), except where the copyhold has been severed from the manor by the conveyance of the freehold apart from the manor itself; in this case the copyholder is allowed to use the assurances proper to freeholds, because his land would otherwise be inalienable (s). The rules which apply to the ordinary surrender and admittance

(p) Anon., 4 Rep. 24 a; Co. Copyh. s. 34.

(2) Roe d. Cosh v. Loveless, 2 B. & Ald. 453.

(r) See Oliver v. Taylor, 1 Atk. 474.

(s) Phillips v. Ball, 6 C. B. N. S.

811.

are also applicable to the other forms of customary conveyance mentioned above, so far as the differences of tenure will permit (t).

The following is the usual form of surrender and admit- Usual form. tance. The copyholder surrenders his tenement to the lord, or steward, or person acting as such, or to some other person authorised to receive surrenders by the special custom of the manor, as the bailiff, two tenants, or the like (u), and the surrender or deed of surrender is accepted and enrolled by the steward: the admittance of the tenant may be made forthwith, or postponed for any period, unless there is a special custom to compel the new tenant to come for admittance. The admission is enrolled when made, and even if it should only have been made by implication it is the duty of the steward to enter it upon the roll as part of the chain of title to the tenement.

forms.

The lord is not compelled to accept a new tenant on Improper prejudicial terms, and may therefore refuse to receive a surrender to the use of a corporation (a), or of a person who is not to be impeached for waste, or a surrender declaring any trusts, unless there is a special custom that trusts may be expressed (y), or made to the use of a person to be appointed in the future by a deed or will, or made so as to pass a larger estate than the copyholder has power to convey (), as where a copyholder for his own life surrenders for the life of another person, or in any other way calculated improperly to deprive the lord of his fines and profits. He may insist, moreover, on the instrument being made in the proper form, and by the proper person, as by his own steward when there is a custom that all surrenders shall be prepared by that officer for a reasonable fee: and

(f) Doe d. Reay v. Huntington, 4 East, 271; Doe d. Carlisle v. Towns, 2 B. & Ad. 585; Doe d. Danson v. Parke, 4 A. & E. 816.

(u) See Turner v. Benny, 1 Mod. 61; Co. Litt. 59 a.

(x) Att.-Gen. v. Lewin, 1 Coop. 51, 54.

(y) Flack v. Downing Coll., Camb., 13 C. B. 945; Snook v. Mattock, 5 A. & E. 239.

(z) Co. Copyh. s. 34.

that the proper words shall be used, as "surrender," or "bargain sell aliene and convey," or the like, according to the local usage, and that the surrender and admittance shall be made with the usual symbols of giving and taking the seisin, as by delivery of a rod, straw, or the like: and he might have required the new tenant to do fealty in person, though this was unusual in practice (a). He may insist upon the surrender containing the description of the tenement by which it is known in the court-rolls, and is not bound to accept a general surrender without a particular description (b), even though it refers to the description in a formerly enrolled surrender, nor to accept any surrender so framed as not to be useful in showing the title to the separate tenements upon the roll. And with regard to the admittance, it is a general rule that there must be a separate admittance for each tenement, whether the tenements were originally united or not, so as to keep the history of the titles distinct (c). But it will be sufficient if the surrenders or admittances are contained in separate clauses of the same instrument. In some parts, however, and especially in Norfolk Suffolk and Sussex, the lands of different tenures are so intermixed, that it is practically impossible to distinguish freeholds from copyholds, or lands in one manor from those in another; and under these circumstances it may be necessary to employ general surrenders and admittances. If the lord or steward accept a surrender which might be refused by the lord on account of its prejudicing his interest, the admittance must be made in accordance with the surrender, for the lord has no power to change or alter the estate to be transferred, and if he admits otherwise than according to the surrender, the surrender will control the admittance (d).

(a) See 50 & 51 Vict. c. 73, s. 2, as to admittance by attorney.

(b) Reg. v. Bishop's Stoke Manor (Lord of), 8 Dowl. 608; Hayward v. Raw, 6 H. & N. 308.

(c) Reg. v. Eton Coll., 8 Q. B. 526; Traherne v. Gardner, 5 E. & B. 913.

(d) Co. Copyh. s. 41.

The essential part of a surrender appears to be the Requisites of giving up of the customary seisin to the lord, and where surrender. this is effectually done the form of relinquishment is not, as it seems, essential, unless the rights of a third person are injured. In an early case concerned with copyholds for lives, where the first taker had the power of barring the other lives by surrender, it was held that his joining with the lord in a fine did not operate as a surrender (e). But a surrender to the use of the lord may be made in any form, and it would therefore seem that a copyholder for life wishing the lord to make a new grant for another life or other lives might surrender by any words showing his intention to relinquish the tenement. A copyholder, however, would incur a forfeiture by making a conveyance by any deed applicable to a legal estate in freeholds to any person other than the lord, and such a deed as would not create a forfeiture, if made to a third party, could not operate as a surrender to the lord (f). An acceptance by the tenant of a new estate in his land has been said to amount to a surrender by implication (g).

surrender

Any person may surrender a copyhold who would be Who may capable of conveying the land, if freehold, by a common assurance (h). But the person who surrenders should be "in the customary seisin," as it is said, for a surrender is a giving up of the legal interest which the lord has recognized as existing in him who surrenders (i). There is an exception to this rule, however, in the cases of equitable tenants-in-tail, and formerly also of married women, when conveying an estate or surrendering a claim to freebench (). Among those who cannot convey by surrender may be mentioned expectant heirs, contingent remainder

(e) Zinzan v. Talmash, Pollexf.

561.

(f) Doe d. North v. Webber, 5 Scott, 189.

g) Gilb. Ten. 253, 254, and see cases there cited.

(h) Co. Copyh. s. 34.

(i) Doe d. Blacksell v. Tomkins, 11 East, 185.

(k) 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 74, ss. 53, 77; 45 & 46 Vict. c. 75.

Persons under disability.

men, and persons with equitable estates or rights in the land or legal rights to be admitted, rights of entry, contingent, future, and executory interests in copyholds (7). As, however, the admittance of the particular tenant is also the admission of the remaindermen (m), and as a copyholder who surrenders for a less estate than he possesses continues in his old seisin as reversioner (n), remaindermen and reversioners may surrender without being admitted themselves, unless restrained by custom (o). The heir of a copyholder may surrender before he is admitted, for his title does not depend upon his admittance, "and the copy made to his ancestor belongs to him," provided only he satisfies the lord for his fine (p); and on the same principle, and subject to the same condition, the heir of a remainderman or reversioner may surrender. A surrenderee, however, cannot surrender until he has been admitted, for until admittance he is not in the customary seisin. A person who has entered upon a copyhold by wrong cannot surrender (g) until he has gained an estate by force of the Statutes of Limitation. Where joint tenants have been admitted, one of them may either surrender or release to the other or others, but by a surrender the joint tenancy will be severed (”).

Copyholds are subject to the usual rules affecting the dealings with land by persons under disability. An infant cannot, without a special custom (s), surrender so as to bind himself, or his heirs if he should die during minority. But his surrender, if clearly beneficial to him or such as he would be compellable to make if of full age, is only voidable, and may be ratified by his act or acquiescence on

(1) Goodtitle d. Faulkner v. Morse, 3 T. R. 365.

(m) Gyppen v. Bunney, Cro. Eliz. 504; Fitch v. Stuckley, 4 Rep. 23 a. (n) Podger's Case, 9 Rep. 104 a, 107 a.

(0) Butler v. Lightfoot, 3 Leon.

(p) Brown's Case, 4 Rep. 21 a, 22 b.

(g) Keen v. Kirby, 2 Mod. 32. (r) Co. Copyh. s. 35; Gale v. Gale, 2 Cox, Ch. Ca. 136.

(s) Nayler v. Strode, 2 Ch. Rep.

392.