days, and fo in proportion. Sir Edward Coke fays, that this tenure, by which the greatest part of the lands in the kingdom were holden, was created for a military purpose: viz. for defence of the realm by the King's own principal subjects.

Bur this perfonal military duty growing troublesome and inconvenient, the tenants found means of compounding with their Lords, first by fending others to ferve in their ftead; and afterwards by a pecuniary fatisfaction in lieu of it; which last came in time to be levied by assessments, at so much for every knight's fee, and was called fcutage or efcuoge, from the word fcutum, a well-known denomination of money, it being a pecuniary, instead of a military fervice. By this degenerating of knight's-service, all the advantages of the feodal conftitution were destroyed, and nothing but its hardships remained, which have been justly and feelingly stated by Judge Blackstone, in 2. Com. C. 5. P. 75, 76. A flavery fo complicated and extenfive called aloud for a remedy; and palliatives were from time to time, applied by fucceffive acts of Parliament, till at length, the military tenures, with all their heavy appendages, were abolished by the ftatute 12. Charles II. chap. 24. by which all tenures in general, except frankalmoign †, grand-ferjeanty ‡, and copy-hold, were reduced to one general fpecies, called free and common focage; the grand criterion, and diftinguifhing marks of which, as we have already obferved, are the having its renders and services ascertained, and not left to the arbitrary calls of the Lord.

TENURE in frankalmoign, in libera eleemofyna, or free alms, is that by which almost all the ansient monafteries and religious houfes held their lands; and by which the parochial clergy, and many ecclefiaftical and eleemofynary foundations, hold them at this day.-Bracton, L. 4. tr. 1. C. 28.

‡ GRAND-SERJEANTY was a tenure, by which the tenant was bound, instead of serving the King generally in the wars, to do fome fpecial honorary service to the King in perfon; as to carry his banner, his fword, or the like; or to be his butler, champion, or other officer, at his coronation. Tenure by cornage, which was to wind a horn, when the Scots or other enemies entered the land, was a species of grand-ferjeanty.

SOCAGE, in its moft general and extenfive fignification, feems to denote a tenure by any certain and determinate fervice; the word, according to Somner being derived from the Saxon appellation, foc, (a liberty and privilege) and being joined to a legal termination, is called focage, in latin fecagium, fignifying thereby a free and privileged tenure.

FROM this brief view of the two grand fpecies of tenures, under which almost all the free lands of the kingdom were holdén, till the restoration in 1660, we shall proceed to notice the other divifion of tenure, mentioned by Bracton, called villeinage; from which our present copybolds feem to have had their origin.

SIR William Temple, in his introduction to his English hiftory, fays, "the Normans finding among us a fort of people, who were in a condi"tion of downright fervitude, ufed and employed in the most servile "works, and belonging, both they, their children, and effects, to the lord "of the foil, like the rest of the stock, or cattle upon it," enfranchised fuch as fell to their fhare, by admitting them to the oath of fealty, which conferred a right of protection, and raised the tenant to a kind of estate fuperior to downright flavery, called villeinage. At length, the uninterrupted benevolence and good nature of many Lords, by permitting the villeins and their children to enjoy their poffeffions in a course of fucceffion, or life only, became customary and binding on their fucceffors, and advanced fuch poffeffions into the legal interest or estate, now called copyholds. Judge Blackstone says, "copyholders are in truth no other "but villeins; who, by a long series of immemorial encroachments® on "their Lords, have at length established a customary right to those estates, "which before were held abfolutely at the Lord's will; which affords a very substantial reafon for the great variety of customs that prevail "in different manors, in regard both to the defcent of the estates, and the privileges belonging to the tenants."

THESE villeins were of two diftinct natures; viz. villeins regardant, annexed to the manor or land; or in grofs, that is, annexed to the perfon of the Lord, and transferable by deed, from one owner to another. However by the almost universal encroachments above noticed, it has been obferved that at the time of the statute of King Charles II. there was hardly a pure villein, that is, a villein in grofs, in the whole kingdom, Sir Thomas Smith, who was fecretary to King Edward VI. fays, he never knew any villein in grofs, throughout the realm; and the few villeins regardant, that were then remaining, were fuch only as had belonged te

bishop's monafteries, or other ecclefiaftical corporations, in the preceding times of popery.

BEFORE We conclude, it may be necessary to state somewhat more particularly, the declarations in the ftatute of Charles II. by which the military tenures were extinguifhed. Section 4th declares, "that all "fines for alienations, &c. and all charges incident and arifing, for or by reafon of wardship, &c. or tenure of knight's fervice, and "other charges incident thereto, are taken away and discharged, any “law, statute, or usage, to the contrary notwithstanding." Section 5th declares, that "all tenures by knight's service of the king, or of any "other perfon, and the fruits and confequences thereof, be taken away ❝ and discharged, any law, &c. to the contrary notwithstanding; and "all tenures of any honours, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or an estate of any inheritance at the common law, held either "of the king, or of any other perfon or perfons, are turned into free "and common focage.'

JUDGE Blackstone hesitates not to declare, that this ftatute was a greater acquifition to the civil property of this kingdom than even magna charta itself; fince that only pruned the luxuriences that had grown out of the military tenures, and thereby preserved them in vigour; but the ftatute of King Charles extirpated the whole, and demolished both root and branches. Upon the whole it appears, that whatever changes and alterations, the tenures in progrefs of time, underwent, from the Saxon ara, to the reign of Charles II. all lay-tenures are now, in effect, reduced to two fpecies: viz. free-tenure in commonfocage, and bafe tenure by copy of court-roll.

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