ſued; which ſuit being commonly within a year and day next after the death of the tenant, therefore the king uſed to take at an average the firſt fruits, that is to ſay, one year's profits of the land[1]. And this afterwards gave a handle to the popes, who claimed to be feodal lords of the church, to claim in like manner from every clergyman in England the firſt year's profits of his benefice, by way of primitiae, or firſt fruits.
4. These payments were only due if the heir was of full age; but if he was under the age of twenty one, being a male, or fourteen, being a female[2], the lord was in titled to the wardſhip of the heir, and was called the guardian in chivalry. This wardſhip conſiſted in having the cuſtody of the body and lands of ſuch heir, without any account of the profits, till the age of twenty one in males, and ſixteen in females. For the law ſuppoſed the heir-male unable to perform knight-ſervice till twenty one; but as for the female, ſhe was ſuppoſed capable at fourteen to marry, and then her huſband might perform the ſervice. The lord therefore had no wardſhip, if at the death of the anceſtor the heir-male was of the full age of twenty one, or the heir-female of fourteen: yet, if ſhe was then under fourteen, and the lord once had her in ward, he might keep her ſo till ſixteen, by virtue of the ſtatute of Weſtm. 1. 3 Edw. I. c. 22. the two additional years being given by the legiſlature for no other reaſon but merely to benefit the lord[3].
This wardſhip, ſo far as it related to land, though it was not nor could be part of the law of feuds, ſo long as they were arbitrary, temporary, or for life only; yet, when they became hereditary, and did conſequently often deſcend upon infants, who by reaſon of their age could neither perform nor ſtipulate for the ſervices of the feud, does not ſeem upon feodal principles to have been unreaſonable. For the wardſhip of the land, or cuſtody of the feud, was retained by the lord, that he might out of the profits thereof provide a fit perſon to ſupply the infant's ſervices,
