functions of the court leet, and depended on a real or supposed grant from the crown. It has already been seen that the later Anglo-Saxon grants usually contained words expressly granting the right of jurisdiction, probably referring to the criminal jurisdiction exercised by the court leet. The manor courts therefore may be regarded as representing one side of the old assembly of the township, to which the jurisdiction properly belonging to the hundred court has come to be vested. The constitution of the court baron is consistent with this view. The freemen, or rather, as they have now come to be, the freehold tenants of the manor, are the judges of the court; the lord or his steward is simply the president. Thus the continuance of a sufficient number of freehold tenants within the manor is essential to the maintenance of the court baron, and so to the continuance of the manor itself. The functions of this court were partly administrative, partly judicial. The business relating to the interests of the various dwellers within the manor was here transacted, probably in some manors the customs of the manor would from time to time be declared in this court, grants of the waste sanctioned, rights of common regulated. The judicial functions of this court varied in different manors. The court leet held either separately or in conjunction with the court baron had jurisdiction over crimes committed within the manor, and the court baron over civil suits arising within the same limits, especially over all matters relating to the freehold. This jurisdiction however was gradually curtailed and overridden by the judicial organisation carried into effect by Henry II. In some respects the characteristics of the leet, even more than those of the court baron, seem to carry us back to the earliest form of political organisation. The leet is the assembly of the whole community, and seems to date from a time when 1 See above, p. 15. 2. The leet is the most ancient court in the land.' Year Book, 7 H. VI, 12 b. that community was small, and could gather under a tree, on the side of a hill, or upon a village green 1, and transact business affecting the interests of all its members. The principal matters dealt with in the leet were the view of frank-pledge 2, the presentment and punishment of offences and nuisances, the regulation of the quality and prices of provisions, particularly of bread and ale. The leet is said to be derived out of the Sheriff's 'tourn.' The conception of the lawyers is that the organisation of the counties and hundreds having been arranged by king Alfred, a portion of the jurisdiction of the courts of the county and hundred was at some time or other granted by the crown to the various lords of manors. As has been seen above, it is probably more correct to describe all the species of manorial courts as the successors of the old Teutonic moots or assemblies, which have by grant or usurpation obtained for their suitors immunity from the regular jurisdictions, and by acquiring in process of time different functions have come to be regarded as different courts. In some respects the court leet retained in the most marked form the traces of its origin. It has always been regarded as the court of the residents within the district, not of the tenants of the manor3, and the matters of which it takes cognisance are for the most part not connected with tenure 4. The customary court does not come to be of importance till 1 Ritson on Courts Leet, p. ix. 2 The style of the court in later times is the view of frank-pledge.' This was the production of the pledges or persons responsible for each other keeping the peace. Frank-pledge (A. S. frið-borh) ought properly to have been rendered 'pledges of peace.' The Normans however seem to have mistaken frið, ‘peace,' for fri, ‘free,' and hence the erroneous translation. 3 So far is this carried that a stranger passing by may be compelled to serve on the leet jury. The fact of his being found within the district is deemed sufficient residence. Ritson, p. 56. The jurisdiction of the leet was probably cut down by the 42nd chapter of Magna Carta (ed. 1217, Stubbs, p. 337), by which it is provided that the sheriff is to make his tourn in the hundred twice only in the year, and that the view of frank-pledge is to take place only at Michaelmas. copyhold or customary tenure has become established, and the notice of it may therefore be deferred 1. Thus the great features of the period extending from the Conquest to the beginning of the reign of Henry II are the establishment of the notion of tenure and the development of the manorial system. Every free tenant (and none other is regarded as having a legal interest in the land at all) holds of and in relation to a lord. The lord who is not in actual possession has a seignory, which he in his turn holds of a superior, till the head of the system-the king-is reached. The gradual definition of the respective interests of lord and tenant, the development of the various kinds of interests in lands, their distinction in point of duration, joint ownership, and so forth, belongs to the period when the constitution was so far organised as to admit of the action of regular tribunals having regard to precedent and authority. The reign of Henry II is the period to which the origin of the English law of land in its I modern form must be referred. It will be seen in the next chapter how great an advance had been made before the end of that reign in the direction of the separation of law and custom, and of establishing fundamental legal principles on a firm basis. SECTION III. ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. § 1. Anglo-Saxon Grants of Bookland. The following three charters are taken from Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus Evi Saxonici, as specimens illustrating the main characteristics of Anglo-Saxon customary law above referred to. 1 See Chap. V. § 6. GIFT OF LANDS TO A CHURCH by UUIHTRÆD OF KENT. 1 IN nomine Domini Dei nostri Jesu Christi1. Ego Uuihtredus rex Cantuariorum prouidens mihi in futuro, decreui dare3 aliquid omnia mihi donanti, et, consilio accepto, bonum uisum est conferre basilicae beatae Mariae genetricis Dei, quae sita est in loco qui dicitur Limingae, terram IIII aratorum quae dicitur Pleghelmestun, cum omnibus ad eandem terram pertinentibus, juxta notissimos terminos etc. . . . . terrulae quoque partem ejusdem Dei genetrici beatae Mariae similiter in perpetuum possidendum, perdono, cujus uocabulum est Ruminingseta, ad pastum uidelicet ouium trecentorum, ad australem quippe fluminis quae appellatur Liminaea, terminos uero huius terrulae ideo non ponimus quoniam ab accolis undique certi sunt. Quam donationem meam uolo firmam esse in perpetuum, ut nec ego seu haeredes mei aliquid imminuere praesumant. Quod si aliter temptatum fuerit a qualibet persona sub anathematis interdictione sciat se praeuaricari, ad cuius confirmationem pro ignorantia litte 1 'A Saxon charter properly so called, and distinguished from a will or the record of a synodal decree, consists of all or some of the following portions: i. the invocation, ii. the proem, iii. the grant, iv. the sanction, v. the date, vi. the teste.' Kemble's Int. to Cod. Dipl. p. ix. Charters frequently begin with In nomine Domini,' In nomine Domini nostri Jhesu Christi,' etc. 2 The charter then usually goes on to state some religious ground for the gift. 'As a general rule it may be observed that before the tenth century the proem is comparatively simple, that about that time the influence of the Byzantine court began to be felt, and that from the latter half of that century pedantry and absurdity struggle for the mastery.'-Kemble, ubi sup. p. x. 3 No formal words of grant appear to have been required; the usual expressions are, dono, trado, dabo et concedo. The granting words are numerous and manifold, and, though part of the formulary, do not appear to be introduced according to any settled and invariable rule. It may be observed of them in general that they are much simpler than the corresponding forms of the Continent, and especially that they show no such strict and formal combinations as those met with in Roman documents. Do, dono, concedo, trado, are the most in use, sometimes singly, sometimes combined; and one noticeable peculiarity is that in place of the present tense do, we usually have the future dabo.'-Kemble, ib. p. xxviii. * A clause threatening terrible consequences, generally excommunication and eternal punishment, to any who do not respect the grant, is the rarum signum sanctae crucis expressi, et testes idoneos ut subscriberent rogavi, id est Berhtuualdum archiepiscopum uirum uenerabilem. Ego Berhtuualdus episcopus rogatus consensi et subscripsi. Signum manus Ethilburgae reginae. (Other signatures follow in the same form.-Codex Diplomaticus, i. p. 54, no. xlvii.) GIFT BY OSWALD, BISHOP OF WORCESTER. A. D. 963. EGO Oswold ergo Christi crismate praesul iudicatus, dominicae incarnationis anno DCCCCLXIII, annuente regi Anglorum Eadgaro Elfereque Merciorum comite 2, necnon et familiae Wiogornensis aecclesiae, quandam ruris particulam unam uidelicet mansam3, in loco qui celebri a soliculis nuncupatur æt Heortford uocabulo, cuidam ministro meo nomine Epelno perpetua largitus haereditate, et post vitae suae terminum duobus tantum haeredibus immunem derelinquat, quibus defunctis ecclesiae Dei in Weogorna ceastre restituatur. 4 fourth characteristic feature in Anglo-Saxon charters. Kemble observes (Cod. Dipl. i. lxv) that the exclusively clerical nature of the sanction in Anglo-Saxon charters (even where these are grants by private individuals) is evidence of our being indebted for the forms of these instruments to Roman clergymen.' In the later charters this clause often presents the extreme of extravagance and pedantry in its language. 1 The charters of the Anglo-Saxons were signed, not sealed. The use of the seal was introduced by the Normans. See Kemble, Cod. Dipl. i. ci. 2 This grant is made with the assent of the king and of the earl. This seems to have been usual in the grants of bookland by great men. See above, p. 20, and compare the grant by Wulfric, A.D. 947, Cod. Dipl. vol. ii. p. 273. 3 According to Kemble (Saxons in England, i. p. 92) mansa = familia as applied to land, an expression for the hide which was enough for the support of a single family, and which varied in different localities and see Spelman, sub voc., and above, p. 7, note 2. : * Kemble has collected (Cod. Dipl. i. xxx seq.) various other instances of grants of interests in lands short of absolute and unqualified inheritances. Two of the most remarkable are the following:- In jus possessionemque sempiternam sibimet ad habendum quamdiu vivat, suoque relinquendum fratre germano diutius superstes si fuerit et sic semper in illa |