6. Primer ſeiſin was incident to the king's ſocage tenants in capite, as well as to thoſe by knight-ſervice[1]. But tenancy in capite as well as primer ſeiſins, are alſo, among the other feodal burthens, intirely aboliſhed by the ſtatute.
7. Wardship is alſo incident to tenure in ſocage; but of a nature very different from that incident to knight-ſervice. For if the inheritance deſcend to an infant under fourteen, the wardſhip of him ſhall not belong to the lord of the fee; becauſe, in this tenure no military or other perſonal ſervice being required, there is no occaſion for the lord to take the profits, in order to provide a proper ſubſtitute for his infant tenant: but his neareſt relation (to whom the inheritance cannot deſcend) ſhall be his guardian in ſocage, and have the cuſtody of his land and body till he arrives at the age of fourteen. The guardian muſt be ſuch a one, to whom the inheritance by no poſſibility can deſcend; as was fully explained, together with the reaſons for it, in the former book of theſe commentaries[2]. At fourteen this wardſhip in ſocage ceaſes, and the heir may ouft the guardian, and call him to account for the rents and profits[3]: for at this age the law ſuppoſes him capable of chuſing a guardian for himſelf. It was in this particular, of wardſhip, as alſo in that of marriage, and in the certainty, of the render or ſervice, that the ſocage tenures had ſo much the advantage of the military ones. But as the wardſhip ceaſed at fourteen, there was this diſadvantage attending it; that young heirs, being left at ſo tender an age to chuſe their own guardians till twenty one, they might make an improvident choice. Therefore, when almoſt all the lands of the kingdom were turned into ſocage tenures, the ſame ſtatute 12 Car. II. c. 24. enacted, that it ſhould be in the power of any father by will to appoint a guardian, till his child ſhould attain the age of twenty one. And, if no ſuch appointment be made, the court of chancery will frequently interpoſe, to prevent an infant heir from improvidently expoſing himſelf to ruin.
