ſervice, ſo the other is a rent or render, both tending to ſome purpoſe relative to the king's perſon. Petit ſerjeanty, as defined by Littleton[1], conſiſts in holding lands of the king by the ſervice of rendering to him annually ſome ſmall implement of war, as a bow, a ſword, a lance, an arrow, or the like. This, he ſays[2], is but ſocage in effect; for it is no perſonal ſervice, but a certain rent: and, we may add, it is clearly no predial ſervice, or ſervice of the plough, but in all reſpects liberum et commune ſocagium; only, being held of the king, it is by way of eminence dignified with the title of parvum ſervitium regis, or petit ſerjeanty. And magna carta reſpects it in this light, when it enacts[3], that no wardſhip of the lands or body ſhall be claimed by the king in virtue of a tenure by petit ſerjeanty.
Tenure in burgage is deſcribed by Glanvil[4], and is expreſſly ſaid by Littleton[5], to be but tenure in ſocage; and it is where the king or other perſon is lord of an antient borough, in which the tenements are held by a rent certain[6]. It is indeed only a kind of town ſocage; as common ſocage, by which other lands are holden, is uſually of a rural nature. A borough, as we have formerly ſeen, is diſtinguiſhed from other towns by the right of ſending members to parliament; and, where the right of election is by burgage tenure, that alone is a proof of the antiquity of the borough. Tenure in burgage therefore, or burgage tenure, is where houſes, or lands which were formerly the ſcite of houſes, in an antient borough, are held of ſome lord in common ſocage, by a certain eſtabliſhed rent. And theſe ſeem to have withſtood the ſhock of the Norman encroachments principally on account of their inſignificancy, which made is not worth while to compel them to an alteration of tenure; as an hundred of them put together would ſcarce have amounted to a knight's fee. Beſides, the owners of them, being chiefly artificers and perſons engaged in trade, could not with any tolerable propriety be put on ſuch a
