X. Rents are the laſt ſpecies of incorporeal hereditaments. The word, rent, or render, reditus, ſignifies a compenſation, or return; it being in the nature of an acknowlegement given for the poſſeſſion of ſome corporeal inheritance[1]. It is defined to be a certain profit iſſuing yearly out of lands and tenements corporeal. It muſt be a profit; yet there is no occaſion for it to be, as it uſually is, a ſum of money: for ſpurs, capons, horſes, corn, and other matters may be rendered, and frequently are rendered, by way of rent[2]. It may alſo conſiſt in ſervices or manual operations; as, to plough ſo many acres of ground, to attend the king or the lord to the wars, and the like; which ſervices in the eye of the law are profits. This profit muſt alſo be certain; or that which may be reduced to a certainty by either party. It muſt alſo iſſue yearly; though there is no occaſion for it to iſſue every ſucceſſive year; but it may be reſerved every ſecond, third, or fourth year[3]: yet, as it is to be produced out of the profits of lands and tenements, as a recompenſe for being permitted to hold and enjoy them, it ought to be reſerved yearly, becauſe thoſe profits do annually ariſe and are annually renewed. It muſt iſſue out of the thing granted, and not be part of the land or thing itſelf; wherein it differs from an exception in the grant, which is always of part of the thing granted[4]. It muſt, laſtly, iſſue out of lands and tenements corporeal; that is, from ſome inheritance whereunto the owner or grantee of the rent may have recourſe to diſtrein. Therefore a rent cannot be reſerved out of an advowſon, a common, an office, a franchiſe, or the like[5]. But a grant of ſuch annuity or ſum may operate as a perſonal contract, and oblige the grantor to pay the money reſerved, or ſubject him to an action of debt[6]; though it doth not affect the inheritance, and is no legal rent in contemplation of law.
Trere are at common law[7] three manner of rents; rent-ſervice, rent-charge, and rent-ſeck. Rent-ſervice is ſo called be-