The wide survey we have taken enables a fair estimate to be made of the
state of the law in Europe when the castle was the court of justice, and
the baron was the judge. England alone of all Europeon countries seems to
have been able to place a check upon the more flagrant abuses, and in
later times of reform to have succeeded, while abolishing what was
essentially evil in the system, in retaining whatever of it was of worth.
Whether there be still laws too deeply impressed with feudal ideas for
modern acceptance is a question for legislators to consider.
The Manor and Manor Law.
BY ENGLAND HOWLETT.
Everything relating to the manor reminds us forcibly of the baron of olden
days, with his little territory, in which he was practically a king.
Estates in copyhold are essentially distinct both in their origin and in
their nature from those of freehold estates. Copyhold lands are holden by
_copy_ of court roll, that is to say, the muniments of the title to such
lands are _copies_ of the roll or book in which an account is kept of the
proceedings in the _court_ of the manor to which the lands belong. For it
must be remembered that all copyhold lands belong to and are parcel of
some manor. An estate in copyhold is not a freehold; but, according to
construction of law, merely an estate _at the will of the lord_ of the
manor, at whose will copyhold estates are expressed to be holden.
Copyholds are also said to be holden _according to the custom_ of the
manor to which they belong, for custom is of course the life and being of
copyholds.
We must remember that in former days, a baron, or great lord, becoming
possessed of a large tract of land, granted part of it to freemen for
estates in fee simple. Part of the land he reserved to himself, and this
formed the demesnes of the manor, properly so called: other parts of the
land he granted out to his villeins, or slaves, permitting them, as an act
of pure grace and favour, to enjoy such lands at his pleasure; but
sometimes enjoining, in return for such favour, the performance of certain
agricultural services, such, for instance, as ploughing the demesne,
carting the manure, and other such servile work. The lands remaining after
this parcelling out, generally the poorest, formed the waste lands of the
manor, over which rights of commons were enjoyed by the tenants. In this
way arose a manor, of which it will be seen the tenants formed two
classes, the freeholders and the villeins. Now for each of these classes a
separate court was held--for the freeholders a Court Baron; for the
villeins another called a Customary Court. In the former court the suitors
were the judges; in the latter the lord only, or his steward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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