Lex custumaria, or, A treatise of copy-hold estates in respect of the lord, copy-holder wherein the nature of customs in general, and of particular customs, grants and surrenders, and their constructions and expositions in reference to the thing granted or surrendred, and the uses or limitations of estates are clearly illustrated : admittances, presentments, fines and forfeitures are fully handled, and many quaeries and difficulties by late resolution setled : leases, licences, extinquishments of copy-hold estates, and what statutes extend to copy-hold estates are explained : and also of actions by lord or tenant, and the manner of declaring and pleading, either generally or as to particular customs, with tryal and evidence holder may recieve relief in the Court of Chancery : to which are annexed presidents of conveyances respecting copy-holds, releases, surrenders, grants presentmets, and the like : as also presidents of court rolls, surrenders, admittances, presentments, &c.

Carter, Samuel, barrister at law.

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CAP. XVI.

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Presentment.

*IF the Surrender be made out of Court in∣to the Hands of the Lord himself, which the general Custom will warrant, or into the Hands of the Bayliff, or of two Tenants of the Manor (which is warrantable only by special Custom) there must be a true Present∣ment of the Surrender in Court, by the same Persons into whose Hands the Surrender was made, and the Admittance of the Lord must be according to the effect and tenor of both the Surrender and Presentment. It is not an effectual Surrender till it be presented in Court. And therefore in an Action on the Case on As∣sumpsit, in Consideration that the Plaintiff would surrender to the Defendant and his Heirs a Co∣pyhold according to the Custom of the Manor, Defendant assumed to pay 500 l. and for breach of this promise the Plaintiff brings the Acti∣on and had a Verdict; but Judgment was arrested, because the Consideration on the Plaintiffs part was not performed; for the Con∣sideration was, That he should surrender the Page 137 Copy-hold to the Defendant and his Heirs, and he hath alledged the surrender to be into the Hands of a Copy-hold Tenant of the Ma∣nor, to Use of the Defendant, which is no surrender untill it be presented at the next Court, and so it is uncertain whether it shall take effect or not, Stiles, p. 256. Shaan and Shaan.

The Presentment by the general Custom of Manors is to be made at the next Court day,* immediately after the surrender, but by speci∣al Custom, at the second or third day after∣wards, and by Rolls in Jay's Case, Stiles 275. there is no certain time, but as the Custom is, so that it be within the Life of the Tenant, it is to be made by the same persons that took the Surrender, and in points material, accor∣ding to the true tenor of the Surrender.

But if the Surrender be conditional,* and the Presentment absolute, the Surrender, Present∣ment and Admittance are void, except the Steward in the entry of it omits the Condi∣tion, and upon sufficient proof made in Court of that, the Surrender shall not be avoided, but the Roll amended, and this shall be no conclusion to the Party to plead, or give in Evidence the truth of the matter, 4 Rep. 25. Kite and Quinton.

But in May's Case, Norf. Summer Assises, 1663. The Custom of a Manor was for a Copy-holder in extremis to surrender into one Te∣nants Hands in the presence of credible Wit∣nesses, and a Surrender was made accordingly, but presented to be done to another Tenant, yet being proved to be done to a Tenant of the Manor; It was holden by Wadham Wind∣ham Justice to be good.

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