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A84200 The exact law--giver faithfully communicating to the skilfull the firm basis and axioms of their profession. To the ignorant their antient and undoubted birthrights and inheritances. Being as a light unto all the professors of the law, as well counsellors as atturneys, clerks, soliciters, scriveners, &c. Or a manu-ductio, or a leading, as it were, by the hand, all such, both of the gentry or laity (as desire to be instructed how to gain or preserve their estates from the hands of their cruell adversaries) to the perfect knowledg of the common and statute law of this nation. 1658 (1658) Wing E3652; Thomason E2128_1; ESTC R201913 81,570 230

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the Husband and his Heirs shall have the Rent of them in the remainder c. And in this case there needeth no atturnement by word because the Husband that ought to atturn accepteth the Grant of the Services the which acceptance is an atturnement in the Law CHAP. XXIV Of Service HItherunto have I briefly touched and overrun the sundry kinds and forms of Estates Now forasmuch as there is no Tenure but hath unto it some service knit and annexed it were very necessary to declare how many kinds of Services there be and what Service is due to every Tenure for the knowledg hereof ye shall understand that the principall and most common kind of service that the Tenant oweth to his Lord is called Knights-service CHAP. XXV Knights-service KNights-service includeth Homage Fealty and for the most part Escuage and whosoever holdeth his Lands by Knights-service is bound by the Laws of this Realm to do unto his Lord homage and fealty and to pay for the most part Escuage when it shall be assessed by authority of Parliament as hereafter more plainly shall be declared Homage is the most humble and reverent service that a man of free estate and condition can do for when the Tenant shall do homage to his Lord the Lord shall sit Homage and the Tenant then shall kneel down before him upon both knees holding his hands between his Lords hands and say in this wise I become your man from this day forward of life and of member and of earthly Honour How the Tenant shall do Homage and to you shall be faithfull and true and faith to you shall bear for the Lands that I claim to hold of you saving the faith that I bear unto our soveraign Lord the King And then the Lord so sitting shall kiss him But if an Ecclesiasticall person which by his order and profession hath addicted himself to the service of God in especiall What a religious Person say when she doth Homage and do homage to his Lord he shall say I do to you homage and shall be to you faithfull and true and faith to you shall bear for the Tenements that I hold of you saving the faith which I owe unto our soveraign Lord the King Also when a woman not married doth homage to her Lord What a woman shall say she shall not say I become your woman for it is not convenient that a woman should be the woman of any other then of her Husband that she shall marry but shall say even as the Ecclesiasticall person saith I do unto you homage c. And if perchance a man holdeth sundry Lands and Tenements of sundry Lords and every of them by Knights-service then in the end of his Homage making he shall say Saving the faith that I owe to our soveraign Lord the King and to mine other Lords And none is bound to do homage to the Lord unless it be such Tenant as hath in the Tenancy an estate of fee-simple or fee-tayle either in his own right or in the right of another for if a woman have Lands or Tenements in fee-simple or fee-tayle What Tenant shall do Homage which she holdeth of her Lord by Knights service and taketh an Husband and hath Issue in this case the Husband in the life of his Wife shall do homage because he hath Title to have the Lands by the Courtesie of England if he overliveth her and also he holdeth them now in his Wives right yet before Issue had between them the Homage shall be made in both their Names but if the woman dieth before any homage made in her life and the Husband keepeth still the Lands as Tenant by the Curtesie now he shall not do homage to his Lord because he hath now an estate but for terme of life Fealty is as much to say as Fidelity Fealty or faithfulness in doing whereof the Tenants shall hold his hand upon a Book and say thus How a Tenant shall do Fealty Hear you this my Lord I to you shall be faithfull and true and faith to you shall bear for the Lands and Tenements which I claim to hold of you and duly shall do to you the Customes and Services which I owe to do to you at the termes assigned as Me help God and then he shall kiss the Book but he shall not kneel as he that doth homage nor do such humble or reverent service as is before declared in Homage And ye shall observe that Homage cannot be done but to the Lord himself Diversity between Homage and Fealty whereas the Steward of the Lords Court or the Bayliff may take Fealty for the Lord. Also Tenant for term of life shall do Fealty but Homage as I said he cannot do Now as concerning Escuage that is to say The service of the Shield Ye shall understand that he that holdeth his Lands by Escuage when the King maketh a voyage Royal into Scotland for the subduing of the Scots is bound to be with the Kings Majesty by the space of twenty daies well and conveniently arrayed and appointed for the Warre And he that holdeth his Land but by the Moity of the Fee of Knights service is bound by the force of his Tenure to be with the King by space of twenty daies and so proportionably according to the rate and quantity of his Tenure But now to our institute and purpose after this Voyage Royal into Scotland in which the King goeth in Person and after his return into England again a Parliament is wont to be summoned in which shall be prescribed and assessed what every Person that held his Land by Homage and went not with the King neither by himself nor by his Deputy shall pay to his Lord in satisfaction of his not serving and according to the taxation hereof every Tenant shall pay to his immediate Lord whether it be to the King or other after the rate and portion of his Tenure If he holdeth by an whole Fee he shall pay the whole Escuage if by a Moity the half if by a fourth part of a Fee the fourth part c. And this Money thus assessed is called Scutage or Escuage for which the Lord to whom it is due may very well for the non-payment thereof distrein But here is to be noted that some Tenants by Custom used time out of mind Distress of Escuage are bound to pay but the Moity or the third part of that which shall be assessed and limited by Act of Parliament Yea Escuage Certain and the Custom is in some place that to what summe of Money soever Escuage is assessed the Tenants shall pay never but such a certain summe of Money and this kind of Escuage is called Escuage certain that is to say Where Escuage is assessed by the Parliament to a more or less summe the Tenant to pay to the Lord five Shillings and no more nor no less c. Such a Tenure is called Socage Tenure and
Honourable the Lord Coke and other famous Sages of our Law the very eccho of whose words are of sufficient power to engraff an honourable respect thereof in the mind of any ingenious person And that the conceited Novelists and malevilous spirits of these our times who spurn at any thing of Antiquity may be infatuated in their opinions and withdrawn from their rash and overmalepert censure of our Common Law let them consider the Reasons which induced those Worthies to their high estimation and value of our Common Laws of England For say they if the ancient Laws of this noble Island viz. England had not excelled all others it could not be but some of the several Conquerours and Governours thereof that is to say the Romans Saxons Danes or Normans but especially the Romans who as they justly may do boast of their Civil Laws would as every of them might have altered or changed the same And this also is the opinion of the Honourable Sir John Fortescue the Lord Coke and many more Yet notwithstanding these Honourable Vouchers of the Excellency of our Common Law one Zoilus or other never leaves carping at it though thereby they do but display their own ignorance and folly even as the Flie which never leaves spurning at the Candle till it burns its own wings And of such kind are those first of all who exclaim against the Law because writ in an unknown tongue when as their object shews a worthiness in it For as all humane things are excellent by their order so the Common Law of England hath some lustre by its proper and peculiar language yea and is transcendent in its order to all humane Sciences in the world When we consider that the true genuine sense and full-fraught phrase of our Common Laws of England cannot be so well exprest nor any Case in Law so succinctly sensible and withall so fully reported and demonstrated as in that speech our Ancestours first taught it to speak viz. that trinal composition and connexture of three Languages viz. English Latine and French Which reason surely saith a Reverend Judge hath not been well understood by those who object it as a fault to the professors of the Law who say They write the Books of Law in a strange Language which none can understand but themselves that thereby the people might be kept in ignorance and they the more admired and esteemed And saith Cicero in his first Book de Oratore were held of the first Professours of the Romans Civil Law Quia veteres illi qui huic scientiae praefuerunt obstinendae atque augendae potentiae suae causa per vulgari artem suam noluerunt But the weakness of this Objection doth manifestly appear in that there is such a facility in the reading and understanding of the Law French For none can deny but that it may be learnt in a week or fortnights time without a teacher So that it may boldly be said in honour of the Common Laws of England That there is no rational Science in the world having so many words and terms of Art whose Cases Arguments and Judgements are expressed and delivered in a form of speech so plain so significant and a tongue so soon learned as our Common Laws of England The alteration of which hath brought in innumerable Petifoggers and Splitters of Causes as they may well be called who by the reading of two or three Law-books in English dare take the presumption to infatuate and delude ignorant people under the notion of being cunning in carrying on of business which if they be it is meerly in the nature of the horsleech to suck them dry that imploy them and besides through their ignorance of the true sense of the Law they undo many a Cause which good Councel might have saved Secondly Our Laws are villified with the aspersion of uncertainty and unnecessary delayes in its proceedings when we all know That the Law is but a Rule of Reason and humane Reason being pliable every way not onely the knowledge of our Law but all other rational Sciences in the whole world which are subject to argument and discourse must needs be subject to uncertainty and errour Yet if we will take the honourable the Lord Coke's Testimony there is no Art or Science which dependeth upon discourse of reason so little subject to divers Interpretations as our Common Law of England and this he spake by his own experience as in the Epistle to the second part of his Reports he tels us That in all his time there was not moved in the Courts of Justice in England two Questions touching the Right of Descents or Escheats or the like fundamental points of the Common Law So certain sure and without questions are the principles and grounds thereof And furthermore it will be a confirmation of its certainty and sure principles even to admiration when we consider with what wonderfull Judgement the grounds of our Laws were laid which in so many hundred years after their establishing do still meet with and provide for almost all the Cases that can happen in a Common-wealth And herein also doth appear profound wisdome and simplicity in their establishing in that the grounds hereof are so clear and plain that whereas the Civil Law which is so highly esteemed is fain to have gloss upon gloss even to a great number for the true understanding of the Text of their Law when the Text of the Common Laws of England which hath continued so many hundred years hath had but one Commentary upon its Text viz. the Lord Coke's Commentary on Littleton which contains the principal grounds of our Common Laws So that it plainly appears That the Judgement and Reason of the Common Law of England is more certain then any humane Laws in the world besides And for Delayes though the Law and Lawyer chiefly be blamed yet the main cause of Delayes arise from the stomackfulness and perversness of Clyents who are of that contentious disposition that they will spend all that ever they are worth so they may have their wils and through their own refractoriness and perverse humours will reverse Judgment after Judgement and Decree after Decree standing by their good wils to nothing which the Law awards And indeed there be too many of these melevolous spirits who cannot be content to undo themselves but will strive also to ruine others and not only so but will strive also to ruine others and not onely so but strive to defame the learned and honest Council because the Cause went against them when as it is the uprightness of the Law which distinguisheth right from wrong And furthermore our legal proceedings are so contrary to the common conceived opinion that almost any cause in the Common Law being orderly pursued may come to a period in a year whereas in France as Bedin testifieth the like will scarcely be in thirty years And lastly for the malediction of all frivilous Objections and in honour of our
the Feoffer held so that no man can hold in Frank-almoigne but by force of a grant made before the said Statute only the Kings Majesty excepted for he is out of the compass of the Statute Finally ye shall note That whereas a man shall hold in Frank-almoigne his Lord is bound by the Law to acquit him of all manner of service that any other Lord can have or demand out of the said Lands so that if he doth not acquit him but suffer him to be distrained then he shall have against his Lord a certain Writ called a Writ of Mesne Writ of Mesne and shall recover against him his damages and costs of his Suit CHAP. XXXV Of Burgage A Tenure in Burgage is where an antient Borough is of which the King his Lord and they which have Tenements within the same Borough Socage Tenure held the same of the King paying a certain Yearly Rent which Tenure in effect is but Socage Tenure likewise it is whereas any other Lord Spirituall or Temporall is Lord of such borough Here ye shall note Custome that for the most part such antient Boroughs and Towns have divers Customes and Usages which other Towns have not for some Boroughs have a Custome that the youngest Son shall Inherit before the Eldest which custome is commonly called Borough English Dower by Custome Also in some Borough by the Custome the Woman shall have for her Dowrie all the Lands and Tenements whereof her Husband was seized at any time during the Matrimony and Coverture Moreover Devise by Custome of Borough in some Boroughs a man may bequeath or devise his Lands or Tenements by Testament at the time of his death and by force of such devise or Legacy he to whom the bepuest is made after the death of the Testator which made such Testament may by force of this Antient Custome enter into the Land so to him bequeathed or devised without any Livery of Seisin to him made or further Ceremony of Law Howbeit how and in what manner a man may at this day devise his Lands by his last will and Testament by force of a certain new Statute it shall be hereafter declared Divers other Customes in England there be contrary to the course of the Common Law which if they be any thing probable and may stand with reason are good and effectuall notwithstanding they be against the Common Law And note That no Custome is allowable but such Custome as hath been used by Title of prescription or time out of mind CHAP. XXXVI Of Villinage or bond Service A Tenant in Villinage is properly when a Villaine that is to say a bondman holdeth of his Lord whose Bondman he is certain Lands or Tenements according to the Custome of the Manour or otherwise at the will of his Lord and to do his Lord Villane service as for to bear and carry the dung of his Lords out of the City or out of his Lords Manour and to lay it upon the Demeane Lands of the Lord or to do such like Service and Villanies Service Howbeit Free-men in some places hold their Tenements and Lands of their Lords by Custome by such sort of Service and their Tenure is called Tenure in Villinage and yet they themselves be no Villaines nor of servile condition but Freemen for the Land holden in Villinage maketh not the Tenant a Villaine but contrariwise a Villaine may make Free Land to be Villaines Land unto his Lord as if a Villaine purchaseth Land in Fee-simple or Fee-tayl the Lord of the Villaine may enter into the Land so purchased by his Bondmen and put him and his Heirs out for ever and this done the Lord if he will may Lease the same Land to his Villaine to hold of him in Villenage And here ye shall understand That Servitude or Villenage is the ordinance not of the Law of nature but of that Law which is called jus gentium by which a man is made subject contrary to nature unto another mans Dominion for he that is a Villaine or Bondman either he is so by Title of prescription that is to say he and his Ancestors have been Villains time out of mind or else he is a Villaine by his own confession in some Court of record so that all Villaines either they be born Villaines or else they be made so they be born Villaines when their Father being a Bondman himself begetteth them in Lawfull Wedlock either of a Free Woman or of a Bond Woman for so that the Father be Bond the Issues of him Lawfully begotten must needs be Bond by the Laws of England having no regard to the Condition of the Mother whereas in the Civill Laws of the Romanes it is clean contrary for there Pars sequitur ventrem that is to say the Servitude or Bondage of the Mother maketh the child Bond and not the Bondage of the Father Bastard Howbeit the Bastard Son of a Bond man shall not be Bond and the reason is because a Bastard is nullius filius in the Law that is to say no mans sonne They be made Bondmen or Villaines two waies either by their own proper act as when a Free Person being of full age will come into a Court of Record and there confesseth himself Bond to another man Or else by the Laws of Arms called jus gentium as when a man is taken prisoner in wars and is compelled to serve and become the Thrall and Bond man of him that took him the Law calleth such a Person a Villaine that is to say a slave and Thrall And ye shall note Definition of Villaines That Villaines be properly called in Latin Servi because that when they be taken in warre the Captains be wont not to kill them but to sell them and so to save their lives So that they be called Servi a servendo that is to say of serving They be called Mancipia a manu capiendo because they be taken by hand and power of their enemies Now as I said by the Law of Nature we are all born free but after that by the Law of of Gentility servitude or bodage did press and invade the world then ensued the bene-of Manumission Manumission is Quasi de manu emissio that is to say Manumission a giving out of the hand or power For so long as a man is in bondage and servitude he is subject to the hand and power of another and when he is Manumissed he is made free and delivered from the said power So that a Manumission is to say a Writing testifying that the Lord hath infranchised his Villain and all his off-spring and Sequell Also if the Lord maketh to his bondman an Obligation of a certain summe of money What acts maketh Manumission in Law or granteth to him by his Deed an Annuity or yearly Pension or leaseth to him by Deed Lands or Tenements for terme of years any of these acts do imploy an Enfranchisement Likewise if
The Exact Law-giver Faithfully Communicating To the skilfull The firm Basis and Axioms of their Profession To the ignorant Their Antient and undoubted Birthrights and Inheritances Being as a Light unto all the Professors of the Law as well Counsellors as Atturneys Clerks Soliciters Scriveners c. OR A MANV-DVCTIO Or a Leading as it were by the hand all such both of the Gentry or Laity as desire to be Instructed how to gain or preserve their Estates from the hands of their cruell Adversaries to the Perfect Knowledg of the Common and Statute Law of this Nation Cicero lib. 1. de Leg. Ratio cum est in mente hominis confirmata conferta lex est lex est radius divini luminis LONDON Printed for Thomas Bassett in St Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street 1658. To the READER THis Book being an Antient Manuscript coming to my hands which through my own small skill in the Law perceiving it to be an Ingenious thing yet desiring to bring it to the Test I do assure you the grave Judgment of such as were profound in the Knowledg of the Law with me not only approved of it but highly Commended it for an Ellaborate and Learned Treatise adjudging it a thing worthy to be Published for the good of the whole Nation These lively Characters of the goodness of the Book agreeing with and as wonderfully relishing with my Genious being very ambitious to do something that might manifest to my self the filial love I bear unto my Country I resolved to publish it but incognito esteeming him the Charitablest man that dispenceth his Larges freely but privately Another Reason that I do not attest it with my Name is because I am no waies greedy of the worlds applaus adjuding it as little worth And if it be objected why I do not set my Friends Name to it whose Script it was I make this my Answer and Apology That I am not of their minds who to get themselves or their Friends a great applaus with the common people matter not what wiles or crafts they use so that they can any wise bring their device about But of the contrary Opinion am I detesting such absurdities who as I must say the truth do acknowledg that I am not throughly convinced in my mind that my Friend in whose Library I found this Script did make or Compose it and therefore I would not presume to affix his Name to any thing that should not be absolutely his and the smallness of the thing besides would have raised a Quaere fi I should have had such a thought Howbeit being carried with a great desire of hearing Commendations of the thing and thereby to be greatly delighted imagining the Praises of it to be the just Deserts of my worthy Friend and supposed Author I was necessitated as it were what by my own desire to do my Country good and what by the great Commendations severall Eminent Practisers of our Law gave of it to cause it to be put in print which being done I represent it to the open View of all men wishing them Candidly to peruse it not doubting but they will find it answer their desires to their great Use and Benefit But knowing on the other side that many wil be apt to spurn if they find the least Iota wanting I wish them to remember Nemo nascitur sine crimine I crave the favourable Construction of all ingenious Persons and for the Malevilous and Caterpillers of our Age which will not be content with any thing I leave as I find Vale. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Antiquity Excellency and Perfection of the Common Laws of England page 1. CHAP. II. Of the Professors of the Law p. 9. CHAP. III. The Definition of Law p. 12. CHAP. IV. A Division of Estates p. 14. CHAP. V. Tenant for Term of Years p. 15. CHAP. VI. Tenant at Will p. 17. CHAP. VII Tenant by Copy of Court-Roll ibid. CHAP. VIII Of Freeholds p. 24. CHAP. IX Tenant for Term of Life p. 26. CHAP. X. Tenant by the Courtesie p. 28. CHAP. XI Of Tenant in Dower p. 31. CHAP. XII A Division of Inheritance p. 38. CHAP. XIII Of Fee-simple p. 39. CHAP. XIV Of Fee-tayle p. 47. CHAP. XV. Tenant after possibility of Issue Extinct p. 52. CHAP. XVI Of Perceners or other Coheirs p. 54. CHAP. XVII Of Joyn-tenants p. 60. CHAP. XVIII Tenants in Common p. 70. CHAP. XIX Of Chattels p. 84. CHAP. XX. Of Partition to be made by Joyntenants and Tenants in Common p. 87. CHAP. XXI Of Conditions p. 89. CHAP. XXII How strangers shall take advantage of Conditions p. 96. CHAP. XXIII Livery of Seisin and Atturnment p. 98. CHAP. XXIV Of Service p. 104. CHAP. XXV Knight Service p. 105. CHAP. XXVI Of Ward Marriage and Relief p. 111. CHAP. XXVII Service of Castle-Guard p. 117. CHAP. XXVIII Of Grand Sergeanty p. 118. CHAP. XXIX Petty-Sergeanty p. 121. CHAP. XXX Homage Ancestrell p. 122. CHAP. XXXI Of Liveries p. 125. CHAP. XXXII How Heirs ought to sue their Livery p. 126. CHAP. XXXIII Soccage p. 134. CHAP. XXXIV Frank Almoign p. 136. CHAP. XXXV Of Burgage p. 140. CHAP. XXXVI Of Villenage or Bond-Service p. 142. CHAP. XXXVII Of Antiet Demesne p. 148. CHAP. XXXVIII Of Rents p. 151. CHAP. XXXIX What remedy a man hath to recover his Rent when it is behind p. 160. CHAP. XL. How Avowries ought to be made of Rents and Services p. 165. CHAP. XLI For the assurance of Farmers p. 166. CHAP. XLII Of fulfilling of Recoveries by Farmers p. 169. CHAP. XLIII Of Tithes and how they shall be recovered p. 171. CHAP. XLIV Of Mortuaries p. 173. CHAP. XLV Of discontinuance 175. CHAP. XLVI How Recoveries by collusion against Tenants for terne of life is no discontinuance p. 179. CHAP. XLVII How wrongfull diseisin is no descent in the Law p. 181. CHAP. XLVIII Of limitation of prescription p. 182. CHAP. XLIX Of Fines p. 184. CHAP. L. Of Testaments or Last-Wills p. 187. CHAP. LI. The difference between Executors and Administrators p. 189. CHAP. LII For probate of Testaments p. 203. CHAP. LIII How Lands and Tenements may be by Testament or otherwise disposed of Enacted An. 32. H. 8. p. 206 CHAP. LIV. Matrimony and Marriage p. 212. CHAP. LV. Of Vouchèr p. 213. CHAP. LVI Voucher and Counter-Plea of Voucher p. 214. CHAP. LVII Of Warranty p. 220. The Exact Law-giver CHAP. I. Of the Antiquity Excellency and Perfection of the Common-Laws of England THere is no Jewel in the world comparable to Learning The Excellency of the Common Law of England no Learning so excellent both for Prince and Subject as the knowledge of Laws and no knowledge of any humane Laws so necessary as of those under which we are subject And if we respect the goodness of Law in general we shall find none so necessary for all Estates and for all Cases concerning Goods Lands or Life as the Common Laws of England And such is the judgement of the