the kings of England from the conqueſt downwards; that the tenants herein "villana faciunt ſervitia, ſed certa et determinata;" that they cannot aliene or transfer their tenements by grant or feoffment, any more than pure villeins can; but muſt ſurrender them to the lord or his ſteward, to be again granted out and held in villenage. And from theſe circumſtances we may collect, that what he here deſcribes is no other than an exalted ſpecies of copyhold, ſubſiſting at this day, viz. the tenure in antient demeſne; to which, as partaking of the baſeneſs of villenage in the nature of it's ſervices, and the freedom of ſocage in their certainty, he has therefore given a name compounded out of both, and calls it villanum ſocagium.
Antient demeſne conſiſts of thoſe lands or manors, which, though now perhaps granted out to private ſubjects, were actually in the hands of the crown in the time of Edward the confeſſor, or William the conqueror; and ſo appear to have been by the great ſurvey in the exchequer called domeſday book[1]. The tenants of theſe lands, under the crown, were not all of the ſame order or degree. Some of them, as Britton teſtifies[2], continued for a long time pure and abſolute villeins, dependent on the will of the lord: and thoſe who have ſucceeded them in their tenures now differ from common copyholders in only a few points[3]. Others were in great meaſure enfranchiſed by the royal favour: being only bound in reſpect of their lands to perform ſome of the better ſort of villein ſervices, but thoſe determinate and certain; as, to plough the king's land, to ſupply his court with proviſions, and the like; all of which are now changed into pecuniary rents: and in conſideration hereof they had many immunities and privileges granted to them[4]; as, to try the right of their property in a peculiar court of their own, called a court of antient demeſne, by a peculiar proceſs denominated a writ of right cloſe[5]; not to pay toll or taxes; not to contribute to the expenſes of knights of the ſhire; not to be put on juries, and the like[6].
