8. Marriage, or the valor maritagii, was not in ſocage tenure any perquiſite or advantage to the guardian, but rather the reverſe. For, if the guardian married his ward under the age of fourteen, he was bound to account to the ward for the value of the marriage, even though he took nothing for it, unleſs he married him to advantage[1]. For the law, in favour of infants, is always jealous of guardians, and therefore in this caſe it made them account, not only for what they did, but alſo for what they might, receive on the infant's behalf; left by ſome colluſion the guardian ſhould have received the value, and not brought it to account: but, the ſtatute having deſtroyed all values of marriages, this doctrine of courſe hath ceaſed with them. At fourteen years of age the ward might have diſpoſed of himſelf in marriage, without any conſent of his guardian, till the late act for preventing clandeſtine marriages. Theſe doctrines of wardſhip and marriage in ſocage tenure were ſo diametrically oppoſite to thoſe in knight-ſervice, and ſo entirely agree with thoſe parts of king Edward's laws, that were reſtored by Henry the firſt's charter, as might alone convince us that ſocage was of a higher original than the Norman conqueſt.
9. Fines for alienations were, I apprehend, due for lands holden of the king in capite by ſocage tenure, as well as in caſe of tenure by knight-ſervice: for the ſtatutes that relate to this point, and ſir Edward Coke's comment on them[2], ſpeak generally of all tenants in capite, without making any diſtinction; though now all fines for alienation are demoliſhed by the ſtatute of Charles the ſecond.
10. Escheats are equally incident to tenure in ſocage, as they were to tenure by knight-ſervice; except only in gavelkind lands, which are (as is before-mentioned) ſubject to no eſcheats for felony, though they are to eſcheats for want of heirs[3].
