Timmins v. Rowlinson, 1 Black. R. 533. 3 Burr. 1603. deliver up the possession, when the landlord hath agreed with another tenant for the same; it is enacted-" That in case any tenant or tenants shall give notice of his, her, or their intention to quit the premises by him, her, or them holden, at a time mentioned in such notice, and shall not accordingly deliver up the possession thereof at the time in such notice contained; that then the said tenant or tenants, his, her, or their executors or administrators, shall from thenceforward pay to the landlord or landlords, lessor or lessors, double the rent or sum which he, she, or they should otherwise have paid." 13. It was resolved in a modern case, that this act is not confined to those tenants who have a clause in their leases enabling them to quit at the end of seven, eleven, or fourteen years, upon giving notice; but also to parol leases for a year. And that a parol notice was sufficient, because the statute did not require a written one. TITLE X. COPYHOLD. CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Copyholds. CHAP. II. Of Copyhold Grants. CHAP. III. Of the Incidents to Copyholds. CHAP. IV. Of Fines and Heriots. CHAP. V. Of the Forfeiture of Copyholds. CHAP. VI. Of the Extinguishment and Suspension of Copyholds. CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Copyholds. 2. Description of 6. Free Copyholders. 10. Circumstances necessary to their Existence. 11. A Manor. 13. A Court. 24. The Things granted must be Parcel of the Manor. 25. And demised or demisable by Copy. 40. What may be granted by Copy. 46. Copyholders may have Estates in Fee. 47. And Estates Tail. 51. And Estates for Life. 33. What destroys the Custom of 61. How proved. granting. 64. Copyhold Jurisdictions. WE SECTION 1. E now come to treat of those estates which are derived from immemorial custom and usage, Dissertation, and called copyholds. But having already discussed c. 3. § 51. the origin and nature of copyhold tenures, it will here only be necessary to consider the properties of the estates thus held. Description of, § 73. Lit. 77. 2. "Tenant by copy of court roll (says Littleton) is, as if a man be seised of a manor, within which manor there is a custom, which hath been made time out of mind of man, that certain tenants within the same manor have used to have lands and tenements, to hold to them and their heirs in fee simple, or fee tail, or for term of life, &c. at the will of the lord, according to the custom of the same manor." 3. A copyhold estate may therefore be described to be a parcel of the demesnes of a manor, held at the will of the lord, according to the custom of the manor, by a grant from the lord, and an admittance of the tenant, entered on the rolls of the manor court. 4. The title of copyholders to their estates was originally deemed so precarious, that it was held in the reign of Edw. IV., that if the lord ousted his 4 Rep. 21 b. copyholder, he had no other remedy but to sue him by petition. It was however laid down by Danby, Chief Justice of the C. B. in 7 Edw. IV., and by his successor, that a copyholder, observing the customs of the, manor, and performing his services, should, if put out by the lord, have an action of trespass against him. A doctrine which has long been fully established; For, as Lord Coke says, "albeit he is tenant ad voluntatem domini; yet it is, secundum consuetudinem manerii.” 1 Inst. 60 b. 9 Rep. 76 b. 5. Copyhold estates are, however, still said to be held at the will of the lord; and this position is so far true, that the freehold of all lands held by this tenure is vested in the lord. The copyholder's estate is not so great as even an estate for years. The will of the lord is not however arbitrary, as it formerly was, but must be conformable to the customs of the manor. holds. 6. It has been already stated, that there is a species Free Copyof copyhold which is held according to the custom of Dissertation, the manor, not at the will of the lord; called a free c. 3. § 57. copyhold, or customary freehold. It was formerly held that the freehold of these was in the tenant; from which they derived the appellation of customary v. Hill, freeholds. But it is now fully settled that the freehold is in the lord. 7. At the great election for Oxfordshire in the year 1754, a question arose whether free copyholders, holding according to the custom of the manor, and not at the will of the lord, were entitled to vote. Sir William Blackstone has written a tract on this subject, intitled Considerations on copyholders. In which he contends that copyholders, of this kind were not, by the old law, entitled to vote for knights of the shire; because they were in fact villein sockmen, whose services were base and servile, though reduced to a certainty; and therefore their estates were not comprised under the denomination of free lands or tenements, or freehold, within the meaning of the statute of Hen. VI.; and this opinion is established as law by the statute 31 Geo. II. c. 14., which enacts, that no person who holds his estate by copy of courtroll shall be entitled to vote at the election of a knight of the shire. Stephenson 3 Burr. 1273. Doe v. Danvers, 7 East, 299. Burrell v. Dodd, 3 Bos. & Pul. 378. Brown v. Doe v. Huntingdon, 4 East, 271.' 8. In a modern case the Court of K. B. held, that where an estate was parcel of a manor, and demisable only by the licence of the lord, passing by surrender and admittance, to which the tenant was admitted by the description of a customary tenant, habendum to the grantee and his heirs, tenendum of the lord by the rod, according to the custom of the manor, by the accustomed rent, suit of court, customs and other services; the freehold was in the lord. 9. In a subsequent case, the same court held, that customary estates, known by the denomination of tenant right, were peculiar to the northern parts of England, in which border services against Scotland were anciently performed, before the union of England and Scotland under the same sovereign. And although these appear to have many qualities and incidents which did not properly and ordinarily belong to villenage tenure, either pure or privileged, (and out of one or other of these species of villenage all copyhold was derived); and also had some which savoured more of military tenure by escuage certain, which (according to Littleton, § 99.) was knight service; and although they seemed to want some of the characteristic qualities and circumstances which were considered as distinguishing this species of tenure; viz. the being holden at the will of the lord; and also the usual evidence of title by copy of court-roll; and were alienable also, contrary to the usual mode by which copyholds were aliened, viz. by deed and admittance thereon: notwithstanding all these anomalous circumstances, it seemed to be now so far settled in courts of law, that these customary tenant right estates were not freehold, but that they in effect fell within the same consideration as |