powers; though the fact is incapable of being established at this far distant period, in the absence of the original grants, and also, perhaps, of the more ancient court rolls. A leet may also be appendant to a vill, or to an ancient messuage (a), but it cannot be prescribed for as appendant to a church or chapel (b). It frequently happens in chartered boroughs that the corporation are lords of a manor, purchased under a license of mortmain, extending over the precincts of the borough, to which manor a leet jurisdiction is appendant, and in those instances the franchise exactly accords with the leet of a private person. In other boroughs and large towns which have not received a charter of incorporation, the mayor or bailiff, or other chief municipal officer, is chosen at the court leet appended to the manor of some private lord, whose jurisdiction encompasses the particular borough or town (c); and those places may therefore be said to have no other local magistracy than the common law officer of the court leet. And even in some corporate places the common law election of a chief magistrate is still imitated (d). Ancient leets, indeed, were equivalent in all respects to corporate jurisdictions; and all corporations, and their powers, have been superinduced upon the leet, the capital burgesses in corporate towns corresponding with the members of the leet jury of ancient boroughs (e). When a leet exists in a borough or town, and the powers of the court are exercisable by the mayor, or other chief magisterial officer, and there is no trace of its original institution, it is not devoid of probability that the jurisdiction does not exist (a) 18 H. 6. 11. Br. Incidents 29. For it may be presumed that the house is the site of a manor. See Gitlins v. Cowper, 2 Brownl. 217. (b) 10 E. 3. 5. 18 H. 6. 11. Fitz. Leet 8. Br. Incidents 29. Tyrringham's case, 4 Co. 37 a. 2 Brownl. 200, in Rowles & Mason. (c) See post p. 830. n. (a.) p. 842. (d) As at Yarmouth and Bridgenorth. Vide also the case of the borough of Holt, (Rex v. Rowland,) 3 Barn. & Ald. 130, post p. 842. n. (b). (e) See Mr. Serj. Merewether's preface to the West Looe case already referred to. under a grant from the crown, as an appendant franchise, but that it is a more immediate vestige of the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, the term leet now used in the style of the court, having, in the adaptation of modern terms to ancient institutions, succeeded to that of folcmote (a). When the Court Leet is to be held. By Magna Charta, c. 35, no sheriff or his bailiff shall keep his tourn in the hundred but twice in the year, once after Easter, and again after the feast of Saint Michael (b), and the view of frank-pledge (c), shall be at the feast of Saint Michael, 'so that every man may have his liberties which he had or ' used to have in the time of King Henry our grandfather, or ⚫ which he hath purchased since;' but this clause of the above statute is to be understood of the leet of the tourn, and not of other leets (d); at least not to such as were granted to private persons previously to that statute; but some think that Magna Charta, so far as regards the time for holding tourns and leets, was introductive of a new law (e). (a) Ante, p. 811. (b) And by 31 E. 3. c. 15. every sheriff shall make his tourn yearly one time within the month after Easter, and another time within the month after Saint Michael; and if held in any other manner it is void. Fitz. Tourn, pl. 2, cites 38 H. 6. 7. (c) Meaning that part of the business of the tourn which related to the taking of sureties. Ante, p. 809. Co. Lit. 115 a. n. 10. (d) 6 H. 7. 2., 8 H. 7. 1. 24 H. 8. 2 Inst. 72. N. 11. Co. Lit. 115. a. And see Br. Leet, 21, 23. 1 Roll. Rep. 201. 2 Leo. 74, per Rhodes, in Lawson & Hares. Fitz. Tourne, pl. 2. But there are authorities to the contrary. Kitch. 88. Per Pe riam, 2 Leo. 75. 2 Hal. Hist. P. C. 71. W. Jones, 290. Dakin's (or Dacon's) case, 2 Saund. 290. S. C. 1 Vent. 106. This was a case in the manor of the mayor, &c. of the city of London, called the King's manor, in the Borough of Southwark. (e) See 2 Hawk. P. C. 56, where it is said "it seems that no court leet granted since the statute, can be holden at any other time than what is limited by it, because every such court is derived out of the tourn:" Co. Lit. 115 a. n. 12. But as to the reason given in Hawk., see ante, p. 803. Whether there is any distinction in this respect between leets claimed by grant and those claimed by pre A leet held by charter, must be kept on the day or days mentioned in the charter, and when held by prescription, it is to be kept on such certain day or days as may have been the immemorial usage (a); and a court leet may be held even oftener than twice in the year, by prescription (b); and when the established period is a month after some certain feast, it is to be accounted a lunar month, twenty-eight days (c). But the court cannot be held on a Sunday (d). A court leet, it should seem, may be adjourned if the business of the particular court require it, and this should be done by three proclamations (e). Where to be held, and of the proper notice. The leet of the tourn, or sheriff's frank-pledge is by the statute of Magna Charta, c. 35, to be kept in certo loco ac determinato within the precinct (ƒ); but it should seem that courts leet of lords of hundreds or manors may be held in any place within the precinct, where the lord shall please (g), and they are sometimes held in the church or chapel. There is, however, a canon prohibiting the keeping of temporal courts, leets, or lay juries, in the church, chapel, or church-yard (h). It is usual for the bailiff to give fifteen days' notice of the court leet (i), by virtue of a precept from the steward of the scription, see Porter v. Gray, Cro. Eliz. 245. And note that "The King hath power to make and create a leet anew, where none was before." 1 Brownl. 36. (a) 2 Inst. 72. Kitch. 88. Br. Leet 32. And once or twice a year on reasonable warning, if a court have been kept at uncertain times. 2 Inst. 72. (b) Edwards v. Hughs, Gilb. Eq. Rep. 209. 8 Mod. 297. (Morgan's case). 1 Roll. Rep. 201. Partridge's case, 2 Leo. 28, 75. W. Jones, 290. The Queen v. Jennings, 11 Mod. 228. Keilw. 148. Gilb. Ex. Rep. 209. Co. (c) Cro. Jac. 167. (d) 2 Saund. 291. 1 Vent. 107. (e) Scroggs 26. And see Kitch. 11. (f) Scroggs 83. Co. Cop. s. 31. Tr. 50. (g) Br. Court Baron 8, cites 8 H. 7. 3. Ow. 35. Per Bryan Kitch. 88, citing 8 H. 7. 4. (h) 1 Burn. E L. 361. (Can. 88.) Ante p. 818. n. (a). (i) "About fourteen days." Jenk. Pac. Cons. 2, 3. "Six or more days." Scroggs 13. But in the absence of manor, which, in the more ordinary form, commands the bailiff to warn the tenants and resiants to appear at the place and time appointed for holding the court, and to summon twentyfour honest and lawful men of the hundred or manor, to inquire for the King of all matters appertaining to the leet, and the bailiff to attend with the names of the persons he may have summoned. I apprehend that notice of the court leet need not be personally served on the suitors, but that it may be given in the church or market, according to the general usage of the particular place, though if it be not an ancient leet (a), personal notice is said to be necessary; and clearly no person could be amerced for non-attendance, unless the accustomed warning had been given (b). SUIT REAL. Prior to the statute of Marlborough (c), (as may be collected from the preceding observations illustrative of the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence,) all persons of whatever rank in life, both men and women (d), servants (e) as well as masters, from the age of twelve to sixty years (f), were compellable to an established usage, three or four (a) Brook v. Hustler, 11 Mod. 76. Ante, p. 821. cites 38 H. 6. 16, (c) 52 H. 3. c. 10. (d) But women were never sworn to allegiance in tourns or leets. Co. Lit. 122. b. Br. Leet, &c. 38:-for women and infants under twelve years, are equally out of the law. F. N. B. 161. A. (e) Fitz. Lete et Hundr. 5, cites 2 H. 4. 16. A custom for servants to be sworn before the constable and portreeve, who have no power to hold a leet, is not good. Br. Leet 10, cites 2 H. 4. 15. (f) Britt. c. 29. Mirror. c. 1. s. 17. (b) Br. Action upon the case 75, Br. Incidents 28. Flet. 1. 2. c. 52. 2 Inst. 120-1. attend the tourn in which they had been commorant or conversant for a year and a day (a), with the exception only of clergy having curam animaram (b); but by that statute, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, religious men and women, are excused from attending tourns, unless their appearance should be especially required thereat for some other 'cause (c);' and persons having tenements in different hundreds, are by the same statute excused from attending any tourn, but in the bailiwick where they dwell (d). 6 We have seen that Lord Coke was of opinion that the statute of 9 Hen. 3. c. 35, extended only to the leet of the tourn, and not to the leets of private persons (e); but we learn that he put an opposite construction on the above statute of 52 H. 3, and thought that the exemption of the latter act extended not only to the King's view of frank-pledge, but to the views of frank-pledge of other lords (ƒ). It is difficult, however, to reconcile this distinction with the language of the two statutes. The first expressly limits the period of holding the view of frank-pledge to the feast of Saint Michael, and then, having used a term equally applicable to the franchises of individual (a) 7 E. 2. 204. 8 E. 2. 276-7. (b) 2 Inst. 121. (c) Britt. c. 29. 2 Inst. 120-1. But the exemption is personal, and therefore the proprietor of lands which are parcel of a dissolved monastery, held in frank-almoign, and discharged of secular services, is not exempt from attending the court leet. Dacre v. Nixon, 2 Roll. Rep. 56. Tenants in ancient demesne are also exempt from suit to the sheriff's tourn; and probably from suit to any leet, except that of the particular manor to which they are tributary, and of which the tenants were considered in ancient times to form an independent community. Ante p. 692, n. (c). And see Br. Leet, &c. 38. And I imagine that a bar- (e) Ante, p. 821. Fitz. Lete et |