As there was considerable variation between the customs of different towns and different counties, it became the duty of the Justices on Eyre to investigate what was the custom, with regard to the subject of the plea, in the particular locality, and they gave their decisions accordingly. Some of these cases are sufficiently amusing, as may be gathered from the following record of a case heard in the Salop Inter of 1292: "One Adam brought a writ of Entry against B.--B.: 'Sir, we vouch to warranty, &c, W. de C., who is under age, to be summoned, &c.'--C. came and prayed his age.--_Spigornel_ (for Adam): 'Sir, according to the custom of the town, he is of age when he knows how to count up to twelve pence, and he shall answer in a writ of Right at that age; and inasmuch as he would answer in a writ of Right at that age, he shall warrant at that age, or shall counterplead, &c. But now he is nineteen years old, which is nearly of full age. Judgment if he shall not warrant or counterplead.' Judgment that he should." From the same Year-Book we obtain an insight into the working of what may be termed communal law in the weighty matter of succession. One Isabel brought the Novel Disseisin against a chaplain named Martin de Hereford and others for a tenement in Shrewsbury. The defence was that Martin had entered by the devise of one William Silke, and that the custom of the town permitted a man on his death-bed to devise tenements of his own purchase. Isabel's counsel, on the other hand, contended that William's father held the tenements by the law of England, and that William merely purchased the freehold, arguing also that the devise was made in contravention of the statute (7 Ed. I., st. 27), since it was made in mortmain for the beneficiaries to chant for him and his heirs for ever. The Judge ruled that alienation contrary to the statute was no justification for the heir to enter; and he drew attention to the inconsistency of counsel in pleading that Silke could not devise his inheritance, and that he could devise if there were no infraction of the statute. Counsel thereupon elected to abide by his first contention, and the question of fact was referred to the Assise (or Jury) which found that part of the tenements were in William's seisin and that William had purchased his father's estate therein. We now come to the concluding passages of this highly interesting suit: "_Berewyke_ [the Judge]: 'For that he could not purchase his own heritage so that it could be styled his own purchase; and he devised the tenements; and the custom of the town does not permit a man to devise his heritage; Therefore this Court adjudges that Sybil (_sic_) do recover her seisin of the tenements which were not devisable. Now what say you as to the remainder?'