It is unnecessary to enter into any ex amination of the privileges of the barons, which in no respect differ from those of the other component parts of the House of Peers. [Puma OF THE Ramat.] The principal writers upon the subject of this article are, John Selden, in his work entitled Titles of Honour,' first published in 1614 ; Sir Henry Spelman, in his work entitled Archteologus, in modem Glossarii,' folio, 1626 ; Sir Wil liam Dugdale, in his • Baronage of Eng land,' 3 volumes, folio, 1675 and 1676 ; and in his ' Perfect Copy of all Sum monses of the Nobility to the Great Coun cils and Parliament of this realm, from the 49th of Henry H. until these present times,' folio, 1685 ; Proceedings, Prece dents, and Arguments on Claims and Con troversies concerning Baronies by Writ, and other Honours,' by Arthur Collins, Fag.; folio, 1734; 'A Treatise on the Ongin and Nature of Dignities or Titles of Honour,' by William Cruise, 8vo., 2nd edit., 1823 ; Report on the Proceedings on the Claim to the Barony of Lisle, in the House of Lords,' by Sir N. H. Nicolas, 8vo., 1829. But the most complete in formation on this subject is contained in the printed Report from the Lords' -Committees, appointed 'A search the Journals of the House, and Rolls of Par liament, and other Records and Docu ments, for all matters touching the Dig nity of a Peer of the Realm.' The word Barony is used in the pre ceding article only in its sense of a nity inherent in a person : but the ancient law-writers speak of persons holding lands by barony, which means by the ser vice of attending the king in his courts as barons. The research of the Lords' Committees has not enabled them to trace out any specific distinction between what is called a tenure by a barony and a te nure by military and other services inci dent to a tenancy in chief. The Hiltons in the north, who held by barony, have been frequently called the Barons of Hil ton, though they had never, as far as is known, summons to parliament, or en joyed any of the privileges which belong to a peer of the realm. Burford in Shrop shire is also called a barony, and its former lords, the Cornwalls, who were an illegitimate branch of the royal house of England, were called, in instruments of authority, barons of Burford, but had never summons to parliament nor privi leges of peerage. Barony is also some times, but rarely, used in England for the lands which form the tenancy of a baron, and especially when the baron has any kind of territorial addition to his name taken from the place, and is not summoned merely by his Christian and surname. This seems, however, to be done rather in common parlance than as if it were one of the established local designations of the country. The head
of a barony caput baronet) is, however, an acknowl and well-defined term. It designates e castle or chief house of the baron, the place in which his courts were held, where the services of his tenants were rendered, and where, in filet, he resided. The castles of England were heads of baronies, and there was this pe culiarity respecting them,—that they could not be put in dower, and that if It happened that the lands were to be parti tioned among co-heiresses, the head of the barony was not to be dismembered, but to pass entire to some one of the sisters.
Barony is used in Ireland for a sub division of the counties ; they reckon 252 of the districts called baronies. Barony here is equivalent to what is meant by hundred or wapentake in England.
It remains to notice three peculiar uses of the word Baron :— 1. The chief citizens of London, York, and of some other places in which the citizens possess peculiar franchises, are called in early charters not =frequently by the name of " the barons" of the place. This may arise either from the circum stance of the persons only being intended were the chief men of the place ; or that they were, in fact, barons, homagers of the king, bound to certain suit and serv;•9 to the king, as it is known the -.awns of London were and still are.
2. The Barons of the Cinque Ports are so called, probably for the same rea sons that the citizens of London and of other privileged places are so called. The Cinque Ports, which were Hatitings, Do ver, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich (to which afterwards Rye and Winchilsea were added), being ports opposite to France, were regarded by the earlier kings as places of great importance, and were consequently put under a peculiar govern ance, and endowed with peculiar privi leges. The freemen of these ports were barons of the king, and they had the service imposed upon them of bearing the canopy over the head of the king on the day of his coronation. Here was the feudal service which marked them as per sons falling within the limits of the king's barons. Those sent of themselves to par liament, though sitting in the lower house, might be expected to retain their appella tion of barons.
3. The Barons of the Exchequer. The four judges in that court are so called, and one of them the Chief Baron. The court was instituted immediately after the Con quest, and it is probable that the judges were so denominated from the beginning. They are called barons in the earliest Exchequer record, namely, the Pipe Roll of 31 Henry I. It may here mean no more than the men, that is, the chief men, of the Exchequer. For their functions and duties see EXCHEQUER.