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. / by S.C., Barister at Law.

Of Customary Manors.

A customary Manor may be held by Copy, and such customary Lords may keep Courts and grant Copies, and such customary Manor may pass by Surrender and Admittance, 11 Rep. 17. Sir H. Nevil's Case. And so it is re∣solved in More and Goodgame's Case, Croke

Jac. 327. That within one Manor there may be another Manor demisable by Copy, and with∣in that Manor there may be customary Te∣nants; for as well as there may be a Tenant at will of a Manor at the Common Law, so there may be a Tenant at will according to the Custom of the Manor. Vide infra, sub titulo Courts. But the way of pleading it must be thus. That such a Manor hath been used time out of mind to be granted by Copy, and also that time out of mind, such Grantees had used to hold Court Barons, and to grant Copies of Court Rolls to others, and so to prescribe in this time out of mind, 1 Bulstr. 57. The King and Stafferton. Yelv. p. 190. mesme Case. The Manor of Haylsham in the County of Norfolk, is held by Copy, and such a Manor by Escheat ceaseth to be a Manor. For by the Escheat the Services be extinct, and one Court Baron only shall be held after the Escheat. But though one Manor may be held of another Manor, yet one Manor may not be parcel of another Ma∣nor, and both be in esse at the same time; for being Liberties and Franchises of the same na∣ture, non possunt stare insimul. More's Case.

Though the Lord by his own act may not make out of one Manor at Common Law, di∣vers several Manors, consisting of Demesns and Freeholds, yet he may well by his own act make a customary Manor, consisting of Copy-holds, and they shall hold Court. As if he grant the Inheritance, or makes a Lease of all his Copy-hold Lands for two thousand years, the Grantee or Lessee may hold Court for the Co∣py-holders, 4 Rep. 26, 27. Melwyche's Case, and Neal and Jackson's Case. Vide infra, sub ti∣tulo Courts. For they have a kind of Seigni∣ory in gross, and may keep a customary Court

where the Steward shall be Judge, and shall take Surrenders and make Admittances.

Notes

• Pleading.
• One Manor cannot be par∣cel of another.
• The Lord may create a customary Ma∣nor.