Afterwards it was sufficient if the site of a mansion at which the services had been reserved, or, as it was called, the site of the manor, formed part of the de mesnes ; and, at last, this vestige of the origin of the name of the estate was dis pensed with, and if the lord retained any portion of the land, so that there would be some demesnes to which the seigniory over the freehold tenants of the manor, and the services rendered by them, might continue to be appendant, the compound estate called a manor was not dissolved, whether it could be shown that a man sion had ever stood on the part of the demesnes or lands retained or not, and even if the lord had aliened and severed from his demesnes the spot on which the mansion had once stood.
A Manor is commonly said to consist of demesnes and services, which have been called the " material causes ;" but other things may also be members and parcel of a manor.
I. The demesnes are those lands within the manor of which the lord is seised, i.e. of which be has the freehold, whether they are in his own occupation, or in that of his tenants at will, or his tenants for years. The tenants at will have either a common-law estate, holding at the joint will of the lessor and of the lessee, or a customary estate, holding at the will of the lord according to the custom of the manor. [Coeerfou).] The tenancy for years of lands within a manor is, in mo dern times, usually a common-law estate.
2. The services of a manor are, the rents and other services due from free hold tenants holding of the manor. These services are annexed or appendant to the seigniory over the lands holden by such freehold tenants. The lands holden by the freeholders of the manor are holden of the manor, but are not within, or parcel of, the manor, though within the lord's fee or manorial seigniory.
Copyholds, being part of the demesnes, are of the manor, but are within and parcel of the manor.
3. But though a perfect legal manor cannot exist without demesnes and ser vices, other incorporeal hereditaments, which are not services, may be parcel of the manor, as advowsons, tights of cons mon, rights of way, and other things.
In general, no person can hold courts of justice, except under authority derived from the crown, either by actual grant or by prescription ; and the crown may at any time issue process for the purpose of instituting an inquiry by what authority (quo warranto) a subject holds a court of justice. It is a distinguishing feature of the feudal system, to make civil juris diction necessarily, and criminal jurisdic tion ordinarily, co-extensive with tenure; and accordingly there is inseparably in cident to every manor a court-baron (curia baronum), being a court in which the freeholders of the manor are the sole judges, but in which the lord, by himself, or more commonly by his steward, pre sides. The jurisdiction of the court-baron
extends over all personal actions in which the debt or damages sought to be reco vered are under 40s.; and real actions in respect of lands held of the manor could not have been brought in any other court, except upon an allegation that the lord of the manor had in the particular instance granted or abandoned his court to the king (quia dominos remisit curiam). To a quo warranto therefore for holding a court-baron, it is a sufficient answer— that the defendant has a manor. As this court was essential to the due administra tion of justice in questions respecting the right of property held of the manor arising amongst the lord's tenants, there could never have been a perfect manor without a sufficient number of freeholders to con stitute the court-baron, which number must consist of three, or two at the least; three being necessary where the litigation was between two of the freeholders. The practice, which prevailed in France, &e., of borrowing suitors from the court of the lord paramount, to make up a sufficient number of freeholders to constitute a court, does not appear to have been adopted in England.
4. Some things are popularly supposed to be incident to a manor, which have no necessary connexion with it. Thus the ownership of wastes within the district over which the manor extends is fre quently called a manorial right, though the right and interest of the lord io wastes, Over which no acts of ownership can be shown to have been exercised by him, rests entirely upon the presumption in favour of the lord, arising out of the circumstance of his being the present owner of the demesne lands, and the for mer owner of the tenemental lands which adjoin such wastes. The same presump tion would arise in favour of any other owner of an extensive district. It is however true that lords of manors in their original grants, both to their free hold and to their copyhold tenants, usu ally reserved the waste lands, giving to the freeholders and copyholders merely rights of common over wastes. Hence it arises that, in point of fact, manors, in proportion to their extent, frequently con tain a much larger portion of wastes than other estates. From this cause, and from the circumstance of manors being gene rally large properties in the hands of the nobility and gentry, several statutes have given to lords of manors privileges respect of game, and the appointment of gamekeepers, which other estates, though they may be of greater extent and value, do not enjoy. [GAME Laws.] But ex cept in particular cases in which a free chase, free-warren, or legal park is, by royal grant or prescription, annexed to a manor, the lord of a manor has no pri vilege, in respect of game, beyond what is given him by these modern statutes.