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the abbot in the king's court; but the abbot defended the suit, and kept the possession of both body and land. In the letters patent of Edw. I. which are recited by Hackluit in his voyages, there, the king receiving the privileges given to the Five ports by Edward the Confessor, one is, that for land within the Cinque ports by Edward Geye, heirs should not be in ward.

In Ina's laws, cap. 38. the mother was to be guardian in soccage to her children, and for their bringing up was allowed 6s. per annum in money, and a cow in summer, and an ox

in winter.

So likewise was ESCUAGE incident to knight's-service before the conquest. Doomsday, in the description of Shropshire, both in case of the manor of Cheny, and in Robert Bellerock's case, makes mention de scutagio, and of the money due for it.

And that, by reason of a tenure by knight's-service, the tenant was to serve in the war, appears by a case recorded in the book of Worcester, between William bishop of Worcester and Walter abbot of Evesham. The bishop claimed sac, soc, sepulturam, et gildam regis, et expeditiones in terra, et in mare, and that by the tenure of fifteen hides in Hamptonia and four hides otherwhere; and the cause was discussed per justitiam et breve et præceptum regis Willielmi primi, and the king (out of Normandy) sent a precept to Godfrey Constanc. episcopo, that he and divers barons should be present; by whom day was given for witnesses on both sides; and the bishop brought divers who lived in the Confessor's time, and knew that the abbot for those lands had sent soldiers in the Confessor's time divers times, and that one was steerman to the bishop, to carry him beyond seas: and therefore the abbot, seeing the witnesses so clear against him, yielded ad omnem rem sicut episcopus clamaverat.

By the book of Abingdon it appears that if the tenant, that held of the king by knight's-service went not in person, or found not a man to go with the king to war, it was a forfeiture of the land held; and if the king's tenant had an un

dertenant that held of him by knight's-service, and he went not to discharge his lord, the land was forfeited to the lord: for in that book it is discoursed of largely, how Henry I. having war with his brother Robert duke of Normandy, he sent over his writs, commanding his tenants, that held in chivalry of him, to send him over the milites, or soldiers, which by their tenures they were bound to send: Taritius, the abbot of Abingdon, sent to William, the king's chamberlain, to furnish the abbot with a soldier, and to discharge him of one soldier for his house of Lea, hard by the monastery, held of the abbot by knight's-service; the chamberlain pretended that he held not of the abbot by chivalry, and therefore that he would send none; but the abbot, to save himself, sent one, and after the wars ended, he sued William the chamberlain for the forfeiture of his land, and proved the tenure, and recovered by the custom of England: and by Doomsday in the description of Barrothshire, which is Barkshire, it is likewise remembered, that in the Confessor's days, if any according to their tenures, upon summons, went not, nor found another, they forfeited all their land to the king. By the manuscript of Abingdon it appears, that if any soldier were maimed in the wars, at his return he was to be kept at the charge of the lord who sent him.

It appears by Bartholomew, the monk of Norwich, that in king Edward the First's time, the mustering of soldiers generally being by the tenure, general summons with proclamation was made, that according to the time and place appointed, as they were bound in their tenures, every one should send his soldier; at which time the constable of England used to send a bill or clerk-roll unto the marshal, who by his office was to peruse and try who came or who made default; whereby the escuage, or sum of money due to the king, was apparent; and these officers were the ordinary conductors of the army of the king in the field. About this king Edward Ist's time, the king began to bring in the present manner of mustering, first termed appearing by prayer, now pressing: for by this writer, who then lived in

the year 1297, and the 25th year of Edw. I. Bigot earl of Norfolk, marshal of England, Humfrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, constable of England, refusing to try or billet the names of soldiers, as appeareth by the king's letters, desiring him to appoint others to muster them, because they came not by the ordinary summons; they alleged, by their office, they were not bound to do it: the king made other commissioners in their places, and the earls went away from the king in displeasure; after, the king, under the great seal, released omnem rancorem, which he had against the earls; for which, saith the writer, Benedictus Deus, Amen.

It is evident by this Bartholomew Cotton, that about this time king Edw. I. begun your commissioners for musters; and therefore he noteth it as a wonder, that in the 23d year of Edw. I., Hugo de Cressingham and William Mortimer came into Norfolk, and, by virtue of the king's letters, numerare fecerunt, pressed soldiers out of the county of Norfolk and city of Norwich, and made them appear at Newmarket; where they took some, and refused others; and that the county, at the public charge, found white coates, et cultellos, et gladios. After warfaring by tenure began to be discontinued, and commissioners came down to muster men, it should seem it took no great effect; for generally the custom of warfaring in Edw. III.'s time, and downward until Henry VIII.'s time was, a captain or a nobleman would indent with the king to serve him with so many men, and the king covenanted (or the lord with the captain) to pay the captain for himself so much money a day; and if the soldiers departed from their captain, whom they covenanted to go with, the penalty was not much, until the statute of 18 Hen. VI. 7 Hen. VII. 3 Hen. VIII. provided remedy for the same.

The mustering by commission in Edw. II.'s time being but new, and levying of men by tenure discontinued, king Edw. II. took bonds of men to be before the king with force and arms wherever he should be, upon pain to forfeit all they might forfeit: the stat. 1 Edw. III. sheweth this was to the king's dishonour; and therefore maketh void

those bonds, saying, every man is bound to do unto the king, as his liege lord, all that appertaineth unto him, without any manner of writing. In Edw. III.'s time, the people began to dislike the mustering by tenure, as according to the value of their lands, in that (as the parliament-roll of the 21 Edw. III. notes) when men were valued at 10%., 201., 1007., and so to a 10007. land, by good inquest returned in the chancery, yet writs came out of the exchequer to some towns, or men, to find halberts, archers, and menat-arms to the value of 20l. or 407. when they were not by the inquisition so highly rated.

That RELIEF was due before the conquest appears by an ancient will made in the Saxons time, cited by Lambard in his Peregrination; it was by the will of one Ebifa, an earl: and in the Confessor's laws (written by Ingulphus) there is mention often made of reliefs, which the lord is to have of his tenant and in one place the sum is set in certain for soccage in hæc verba; "He that holds in soccage, let his "right relief be the rent of his land by one year :" and in the red book in the checquer a charter of Hen. I. to bishop Sampson is cited, where a certain and not an arbitrable relief is mentioned: but the relief of earls, barons, and others, that held by knight's-service of the king, though a relief was due, yet it was not put into certainty, nor was certain in Hen. II.'s time.

AYDE PUR FILLE MARIER is due by those that hold in knight's-service, according to 20s. a knight's fee; and for those that hold soccage 20s. for 201. land: but those that hold in Frank-Almoign were not chargeable pur fille marier, which is proved by the plea-roll, 30 Edw. III. in the exchequer. The abbot of St. Alban's being sued for aid, to make the Black Prince knight, out of the manor of Winslo and Gresburgh, he pleaded, those lands were held in Frank`Almoign, and not in soccage or knight's-service; whereupon the barons discharged him, and so in tempore Edw. I. a writ of discharge was sent for the abbot of Peterborough, who held in Frank-Almoign, when Elianor the daughter of Edw. I. was married to Henry earl of Bar.

Nota TENT PER LE VERGE ad le freehold in lay comt il n'a ď evidence per son terr nisi le delivery del rod in cort, le Cur. 21 Ed. IV. per dire q et seis in fee accordant al custom del mannor, 3 Ed. V. Coron. si soit attaint de felonie, roy avera annum, diem et vastum; et 33 Hen. VI. dit q tiel tent ad le franktenement in lui.

There were COPYHOLDERS in the Saxons' time, as appeareth by many places in Doomsday book. Speaking of rodmen in the Confessor's time, Lambert saith, he who held by base tenure and not in villainage among the Saxons was called a churle: I find not any warrant for it, though I assure myself he did: and that these copyholders are of meaner respect in those days is to be collected out of many places of Doomsday, shewing that some kind of socmen might not only sell their land without license of the lord, but they could not withdraw their persons from the soil they undertook to manure for customary land; which is the reason of the restitution of faire fee. And in those days it was a base, if not a tenure in villainage. To give an instance; in Flamdit hundred two sockmen, the tenants of Godwin; unus inveniebat aurum et alter guerdam, and they could not depart without license. Again in Trippleday hundred ; this land held Olgarus, the man of Harold the earl, and in the time of king..... he could not depart from his own lord, to go to another lord.

In the same hundred, the socmen of the earl Gurdus could not depart and dwell elsewhere without the earl Gurdus's license.

In the description of Hampshire, this land in the time of king Edw. Wenseil held, as his ancestor did, who was mediator caprarum, et non potuit se vertere ad alienum dominum. When a base tenant is adjudged to do villain-service, as appears by a plea-roll, 7, 8 Edw. I. these words in judgment are, secundum statum corporum suorum.

It followeth to be proved, that there were VILLAINS before the conquest: I remember not in Beda the word written, his Latin being purer; he called them servi, but that they were full villains is evident; in that he writes, king Edel

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