THE

LAW OF COPYHOLDS,

IN REFERENCE TO THE

ENFRANCHISEMENT OF MANORIAL RIGHTS.

CHAPTER I.

SECT. I. OF MANORS GENERALLY.
SECT. II. OF MANORS BY REPUTATION.

SECT. I. OF MANORS GENERALLY.

1. Of the Origin of Copyholds and Manors. 2. Of what a Manor may consist

3. What things may be granted by Copy
4. Of the Immemorial Existence of Copyholds.
5. Of Grants of Copyholds....
6. Of Courts incident to a Manor
7. Of the Division of Manors...
8. Of the Suspension of Manors...

....

......

9. Of the Regrant of Copyholds, and the Destruction of their demisable quality.

1. Of the Origin of Copyholds and Manors. THE origin of copyhold tenure is involved in some obscurity, but a very cursory view of its origin will be sufficient in a work which is intended only to explain its general incidents. The opinion generally adopted among our lawyers and antiquarians, and supported by high authority, is, that copyholders have gradually arisen out of villeins, or tenants in villeinage, who composed the mass of the agricultural population of England for some centuries after the Norman Con

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B