a customary right to those estates, which before were held absolutely at the lord's will. Which affords a very substantial reason for the great variety of customs that prevail in different manors, with regard both to the descent of the estates, and the privileges belonging to the tenants.

These two main principles, are held to be the supporters of the copyhold tenure, and without which it cannot exist; 1. That the lands be parcel of, and situate within that manor, under which it is held. 2. That they have been demised, or demisable, by copy of court roll immemorially: for immemorial custom is the life of all tenures by copy; so that no new copyhold can, strictly speaking, be granted at this day.

In some manors, where the custom hath been to permit the heir to succeed the ancestor in his tenure, the estates are stiled copyholds of inheritance ; in others, where the lords have been more vigilant to maintain their rights, they remain copyholds for life only; for the custom of the manor has in both cases so far superseded the will of the lord, that, provided the services be performed or stipulated for by fealty, he cannot, in the first instance, refuse to admit the heir of his tenant upon his death; nor, in the second, can he remove his present tenant so long as he lives, though he holds nominally by the precarious tenure of his lord's will.

The fruits and appendages of a copyhold tenure, that it hath in common with free tenures, are fealty, services, (as well in rents as otherwise)

reliefs, and escheats. The two latter belong only to copyholds of inheritance; the former to those for life also. But, besides these, copyholds have also heriots, wardship, and fines. Heriots, which I think are agreed to be a Danish custom, and of which we shall say more hereafter, are a render of the best beast or other good (as the custom may be) to the lord, on the death of the tenant. This is plainly a relic of villein tenure; there being originally less hardship in it, when all the goods and chattels belonged to the lord, and he might have seized them even in the villein's lifetime. These are incident to both species of copyhold; but wardship and fines to those of inheritance only.

Wardship, in copyhold estates, partakes both of that in chivalry and that in socage. Like that in chivalry, the lord is the legal guardian; who usually assigns some relation of the infant tenant to act in his stead: and he, like guardian in socage, is accountable to his ward for the profits. Of fines, some are in the nature of primer seisins, due on the death of each tenant, others are mere fines for alienation of the lands; in some manors only one of these sorts can be demanded, in some both, and in others neither. They are sometimes arbitrary and at the will of the lord, sometimes fixed by custom but, even when arbitrary, the courts of law, in favour of the liberty of copyholders, have tied them down to be reasonable in their extent; otherwise they might amount to a disherison of the estate. No fine therefore is allowed to be

taken upon descents and alienations, (unless in particular circumstances) of more than two years' improved value of the estate.

CHAPTER VII.

OF FREEHOLD ESTATES OF INHERITANCE.

THE next objects of our disquisitions are the nature and properties of estates. An estate in lands, tenements, and hereditaments, signifies such interest as the tenant hath therein. Estates may be considered in a threefold view: first, with regard to the quantity of interest which the tenant has in the tenement: secondly, with regard to the time at which that quantity of interest is to be enjoyed: and, thirdly, with regard to the number and connexions of the tenants.

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First, with regard to the quantity of interest which the tenant has in the tenement, this is measured by its duration and extent. Thus, either his right of possession is to subsist for an uncertain period, during his own life, or the life of another ; to determine at his own decease, or to remain to his descendants after him or it is circumscribed within a certain number of years, months, or days: or, lastly, it is infinite and unlimited, being vested in him and his representatives for ever. And this occasions the primary division of estates, into such as are freehold, and such as are less than freehold.

Estates of freehold are either estates of inheritance, or estates not of inheritance. The former are again divided into inheritances absolute or feesimple; and inheritances limited, one species of which we usually call fee-tail.

I. Tenant in fee-simple (or as he is frequently stiled, tenant in fee) is he that hath lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to hold to him and his heirs for ever; generally, absolutely, and simply; without mentioning what heirs, but referring that to his own pleasure, or to the disposition of the law. A fee therefore, in general, signifies an estate of inheritance; being the highest and most extensive interest that a man can have in a feud: and when the term is used simply, without any other adjunct, or has the adjunct of simple annexed it, (as a fee or a fee-simple) it is used in contradistinction to a fee constitutional at the common law, or a fee-tail by the statute; importing an absolute inheritance, clear of any condition, limitation, or restrictions to particular heirs, but descendible to the heirs general, whether male or female, lineal or collateral.

The word, heirs, is necessary in the grant or donation, in order to make a fee, or inheritance. For if land be given to a man for ever, or to him and his assigns for ever, this vests in him an estate for life but this rule is now softened by many exceptions.

It does not extend to devises by will; in which as they were introduced at the time when the feudal rigour was apace wearing out, a more liberal

construction is allowed: and therefore, by a devise to a man for ever, or to one and his assigns for ever, or to one in fee-simple, the devisee hath an estate of inheritance; for the intention of the devisor is sufficiently plain from the words of perpetuity annexed, though he hath omitted the legal word of inheritance. The general rule is, that the word "heirs" is necessary to create an estate of inheritance.

II. We are next to consider limited fees, or such estates of inheritance as are clogged and confined with conditions, or qualifications, of any sort. And these we may divide into two sorts: 1. Qualified, or base fees and 2. Fees conditional, so called at the common law; and afterwards fees-tail, in consequence of the statute de donis.

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1. A base, or qualified fee, is such a one as has a qualification subjoined thereto, and which must be determined whenever the qualification annexed to it is at an end. As, in the case of a grant to A. and his heirs, tenants of the manor of Dale; in this instance, whenever the heirs of A. cease to be tenants of that manor, the grant is entirely defeated.

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2. A conditional fee, at the common law, was a fee restrained to some particular heirs, exclusive of others: "donatio stricta et coarctata; sicut certis hæredibus, quibusdam a successione exclusis :" as to the heirs of a man's body, by which only his lineal descendants were admitted, in exclusion of collateral heirs ; or, to the heirs male of his body, in exclusion both of collaterals, and lineal females

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