Chapter the twenty second.
Of ALIENATION by SPECIAL CUSTOM.
WE are next to conſider aſſurances by ſpecial cuſtom, obtaining only in particular places, and relative only to a particular ſpecies of real property. This therefore is a very narrow title; being confined to copyhold lands, and ſuch cuſtomary eſtates, as are holden in antient demeſne, or in manners of a ſimilar nature: which, being of a very peculiar kind, and originally no more than tenancies in pure or privileged villenage, were never alienable by deed; for, as that might tend to defeat the lord of his ſigniory, it is therefore a forfeiture of a copyhold[1]. Nor are they transferrable by matter of record, even in the king's courts, but only in the court baron of the lord. The method of doing this is generally by ſurrender; though in ſome manors, by ſpecial cuſtom, recoveries may be ſuffered of copyholds[2]: but theſe differing in nothing material from recoveries of free land, ſave only that they are not ſuffered in the king's courts, but in the court baron of the manor, I ſhall confine myſelf to conveyances by ſurrender, and their conſequences.
Surrender, ſurſumredditio, is the yielding up of the eſtate by the tenant into the hands of the lord, for ſuch purpoſes as in the ſurrender are expreſſed. As, it may be, to the uſe and behoof of A and his heirs; to the uſe of his own will; and the like. The proceſs, in moſt manors, is, that the tenant comes to
