of cuſtoms that prevail in different manors, with regard both to the deſcent of the eſtates, and the privileges belonging to the tenants. And theſe encroachments grew to be ſo univerſal, that when tenure in villenage was virtually aboliſhed, (though copyholds were reſerved) by the ſtatute of Charles II, there was hardly a pure villein left in the nation. For ſir Thomas Smith[1] teſtifies, that in all his time (and he was ſecretary to Edward VI) he never knew any villein in groſs throughout the realm; and the few villeins regardant that were then remaining were ſuch only as had belonged to biſhops, monaſteries, or other eccleſiaſtical corporations, in the preceding times of popery. For he tells us, that "the holy fathers, monks, and friars, had in their confeſſions, and ſpecially in their extreme and deadly ſickneſs, convinced the laity how dangerous a practice it was, for one chriſtian man to hold another in bondage: ſo that temporal men, by little and little, by reaſon of that terror in their conſciences, were glad to manumit all their villeins. But the ſaid holy fathers, with the abbots and priors, did not in like ſort by theirs; for they alſo had a ſcruple in conſcience to empoveriſh and deſpoil the church ſo much, as to manumit ſuch as were bond to their churches, or to the manors which the church had gotten; and ſo kept their villeins ſtill." By theſe ſeveral means the generality of villeins in the kingdom have long ago ſprouted up into copyholders: their perſons being enfranchiſed by manumiſſion or long acquieſcence; but their eſtates, in ſtrictneſs, remaining ſubject to the ſame ſervile conditions and forfeitures as before; though, in general, the villein ſervices are uſually commuted for a ſmall pecuniary quit-rent[2].
- ↑ Commonwealth. b. 3. c. 10.
- ↑ In ſome manors the copyholders were bound to perform the moſt ſervile offices, as to hedge and ditch the lord's grounds, to lop his trees, to reap his corn, and the like; the lord uſually finding them meat and drink, and ſometinies (as is ſtill the uſe in the highlands of Scotland) a minſtrell or piper for their diverſion. (Rot. Maner. de Edgware Com. Midd.) As in the kingdom of Whidah, on the ſlave coaſt of Africa, the people are bound to cut and carry in the king's corn from off his demeſne lands, and are attended by muſic during all the time of their labour. (Mod. Un. Hiſt. xvi. 429.)
