3. Admittance is the laſt ſtage, or perfection, of copyhold aſſurances. And this is of three ſorts: firſt, an admittance upon a voluntary grant from the lord; ſecondly, an admittance upon ſurrender by the former tenant; and thirdly, an admittance upon a deſcent from the anceſtor.
In admittances, even upon a voluntary grant from the lord, when copyhold lands have eſcheated or reverted to him, the lord is conſidered as an inſtrument. For, though it is in his power to keep the lands in his own hands, or to diſpoſe of them at his pleaſure, by granting an abſolute fee-ſimple, a freehold, or a chattel intereſt therein; and quite to change their nature from copyhold to ſocage tenure, ſo that he may well be reputed their abſolute owner and lord; yet, if he will ſtill continue to diſpoſe of them as copyhold, he is bound to obſerve the antient cuſtom preciſely in every point, and can neither in tenure nor eſtate introduce any kind of alteration; for that were to create a new copyhold: wherefore in this reſpect the law accounts him cuſtom's inſtrument. For if a copyhold for life falls into the lord's hands, by the tenant's death, though the lord may deſtroy the tenure and enfranchiſe the land, yet if he grants it out again by copy, he can neither add to nor diminiſh the antient rent, nor make any the minuteſt variation in other reſpects[1]: nor is the tenant's eſtate, ſo granted, ſubject to any charges or incumbrances by the lord[2].
In admittances upon ſurrender of another, the lord is to no intent reputed as owner, but wholly as an inſtrument: and the tenant admitted ſhall likewiſe be ſubject to no charges or incumbrances of the lord; for his claim to the eſtate is ſolely under him that made the ſurrender[3].
