ſhall hold the ſame, not of his immediate feoffor, but of the chief lord of the fee, of whom ſuch feoffor himſelf held it. And from hence it is held, that all manors exiſting at this day, muſt have exiſted by immemorial preſcription; or at leaſt ever ſince the 18 Edw. I. when the ſtatute of quia emptores was made. For no new manor can have been created ſince that ſtatute: becauſe it is eſſential to a manor, that there be tenants who hold of the lord, and that ſtatute enacts, that for the future no ſubject ſhall create any new tenants to hold of himſelf.
Now with regard to the folk-land, or eſtates held in villenage, this was a ſpecies of tenure neither ſtrictly feodal, Norman, or Saxon; but mixed and compounded of them all[1]: and which alſo, on account of the heriots that uſually attend it, may ſeem to have ſomewhat Daniſh in it's compoſition. Under the Saxon government there were, as ſir William Temple ſpeaks[2], a ſort of people in a condition of downright ſervitude, uſed and employed in the moſt ſervile works, and belonging, both they, their children, and effects, to the lord of the ſoil, like the reſt of the cattle or ſtock upon it. Theſe ſeem to have been thoſe who held what was called the folk-land, from which they were removeable at the lord's pleaſure. On the arrival of the Normans here, it ſeems not improbable, that they, who were ſtrangers to any other than a feodal ſtate, might give ſome ſparks of enfranchiſement to ſuch wretched perſons as fell to their ſhare, by admitting them, as well as others, to the oath of fealty; which conferred a right of protection, and raiſed the tenant to a kind of eſtate ſuperior to downright ſlavery, but inferior to every other condition[3]. This they called villenage, and the tenants villeins, either from the word villis, or elſe, as ſir Edward Coke tells us[4], a villa; becauſe they lived chiefly in villages, and were employed in ruſtic works of the moſt fordid kind: like the Spartan helotes, to whom alone the culture of the lands was conſigned; their rugged maſters, like our northern anceſtors, eſteeming war the only honourable employment of mankind.
