Copyholds are a common incident to the demesnes of a manor, but there are many manors in which this species of tenure does not appear to have ever existed, and many more in which it has been long extinct ; and though there are now no copyholds unconnected with a manor, the custom of demising by the lord's rolls appears to have formerly been common to every lord or freeholder who had demesnes which were held iu villen age. So the right to have a court-leet is a royal franchise [LEET1, under which the grantee holds a court of criminal jurisdiction in the king's name, over the resiants (residents) within a particular district. This privilege may be granted to persons who are not lords of manors ; and where the grantee has a manor, the limits of the manor and of the lest are not always co-extensive.
Since the statutes of Quia Emptores and De Prterogativi Regis no manors have probably been created ; and it has been commonly said that no new manor could afterwards be created. But as a proposition of law this appears to be stated too broadly.
Practically, however, no entirely new manors are now created ; but where, upon the partition of a manor, part of the demesnes and part of the services, includ ing suit of court of a sufficient number of freehold tenants to constitute a court baron, are assigned to one parcener, joint tenant, or tenant in common, and other parts of the demesnes and services to another parcener, &c., each party has a manor, and may hold a court-baron. It is also said that if a manor extends into several townships, the lord may create separate manors by conveying the de mesnes and services in township A to one, and those in township B to another. A manor is not destroyed by the loss of' those incidents which, though mem bers, and forming part of the manor, are not, like demesnes and services, the "ma terial causes of a manor." Nor will the legal existence of the manor be affected by the alienation of part of the demesnes, or by the alienation or extinction of part of the services, or by the extinction of all the copyholds. But upon the aliena tion of all the demesnes, or the alienation or extinction of all the services, the manor ceases.
Manors in Ancient Demesne are those manors which, though now mostly in the hands of subjects, formed part of the royal domain at the time of the Conquest, and are designated in Domesday as " terra regis." The peculiarity of these manors is, that there exists in them a particular class of tenants possessing certain custom ary privileges, supposed, by Lord Coke and others, to be derived from the indul gence of the crown in matters " pertaining to the king's husbandry." They were formerly called " tenants in socage in ancient tenure," but are now commonly known as " tenants in ancient demesne," a term not in itself very accurate, since all tenants within these ancient demesne manors, whether copyholders or lease holders, and even the lord himself; are strictly speaking tenants in ancient de mesne. In these customary tenures the freehold is not in the lord, but in the tenant, who is therefore called a custom ary freeholder; and it does not appear to be necessary to the continuance of the manor that there should be any other freehold tenants, though lands may be held of a manor in ancient demesne by the ordinary freehold tenure, which lands are called lands in frank-fee by way of distinguishing them from the customary freeholds held by the " tenants in socage in ancient tenure,' now called "tenants in ancient demesne."
Lord Coke enumerates six privileges as annexed for this peculiar tenure. (4 /tat., 269; Bac., Abr.,' Ancient Demense Com., Dig., ' Ancient Demense.') Manors in Border Counties.—The ex state of the northern borders of liable to hostile incursions in time of war, and scarcely less in times of nominal peace, created a peculiar species of tenure in the manors in the four northern counties. Persons holding by this tenure are called customary free holders ; though here the freehold is in the lord, and the timber and mines be long to him, and not (as in the tenure in ancient demesne) to the tenants; but they are so called because they are al lowed the privilege of passing their estates, as freeholders do, by feoffment and livery, a privilege perhaps derived from the irregularity with which the customary courts of the manor were held, and from the necessity of allowing persons whose tenure of land and of life was so uncer tain to make immediate dispositions of their property.
Manors, As.sessionable, a term peculiar to that part of the domain of the duke of Cornwall which is situate within the county of Cornwall, consisting of seven teen manors, namely, Launceston, Tre maton, Tyntagell, Restormel, Stoke Climsland, Tybeste, Tewington, Helston in-Kerrier, Moresk, Ty warnhaile, Penk neth, Penlyn, Rellaton, Helston-in-Trig shire, Liskeard, Calstock, and Talskydy.
The earls and dukes of Cornwall, and, when no earl or duke, the crown, have sent from time to time (commonly every seven years) certain persons commis sioned to visit these manors in succession, and to assess the lord's demesnes, i.e. to let them at such rents and upon such terms as might appear to them to be ad vantageous to the duchy. The courts held by the commissioners for the pur pose of exercising the authority thus delegated to them were called assessions, or courts of assession. The course usu ally was to let the land until the next assession. From the conventions (cove nants or engagements) entered into by the persons to whom those demesnes were so arrented, the interest demised was called a tenure in conventions, and the tenants were styled conventionaries. These de mises were made both to freemen and villeins; the former being called free conventionaries, the latter villein or na tive conventionaries. The latter class appear to have become extinct in the six teenth century.
By degrees the conventionary tenants acquired an inheritable interest in the certainty of the renewal of their holdings in favour of themselves and their de scendants at each successive assession. The conventionary tenant thus acquired, like a copyholder of inheritance, an in terest freehold in point of duration, with out a freehold tenure.
In conventionary tenements the mine rals belong to the lord, and not to the customary tenant; as it was held upon a trial at bar in 1829, which lasted seven days (Rowe v. Brenton, 3 Mann. and Ryl., 133-364.)