with himſelf, and therefore held it an implied manumiſſion. But, in caſe the lord indicted him for felony, it was otherwiſe; for the lord could not inflict a capital puniſhment on his villein, without calling in the aſſiſtance of the law.
Villeins, by this and many other means, in proceſs of time gained conſiderable ground on their lords; and in particular ſtrengthened the tenure of their eſtates to that degree, that they came to have in them an intereſt in many places full as good, in others better than their lords. For the goodnature and benevolence of many lords of manors having, time out of mind, permitted their villeins and their children to enjoy their poſſeſſions without interruption, in a regular courſe of deſcent, the common law, of which cuſtom is the life, now gave them title to preſcribe againſt their lords; and, on performance of the ſame ſervices, to hold their lands, in ſpight of any determination of the lord's will. For, though in general they are ſtill ſaid to hold their eſtates at the will of the lord, yet it is ſuch a will as is agreeable to the cuſtom of the manor; which cuſtoms are preſerved and evidenced by the rolls of the ſeveral courts baron in which they are entered, or kept on foot by the conſtant immemorial uſage of the ſeveral manors in which the lands lie. And, as ſuch tenants had nothing to ſhew for their eſtates but theſe cuſtoms, and admiſſions in purſuance of them, entered on thoſe rolls, or the copies of ſuch entries witneſſed by the ſteward, they now began to be called tenants by copy of court roll, and their tenure itſelf a copyhold[1].
Thus copyhold tenures, as ſir Edward Coke obſerves[2], although very meanly deſcended, yet come of an antient houſe; for, from what has been premiſed it appears, that copyholders are in truth no other but villeins, who, by a long ſeries of immemorial encroachments on the lord, have at laſt eſtabliſhed a cuſtomary right to thoſe eſtates, which before were held abſolutely at the lord's will. Which affords a very ſubſtantial reaſon for the great variety
