MANOR (Iluatrimim).
I. Orlyin of Monors.—At the time of the Norman conquest mane rius or manerium (from mestere, to dwell) denoted • large mansion or dwelling. The =uteri= " of the Exchequer Domesday is the " manage " of the Exeter Domesday, each being therefore the equivalent of the Anglo Saxon or French term used by the officers who made the survey. [Exrrea Doursurr.] In France the corresponding word " manuir " has never acquired any other signification than that of a mansion ; and an estate possessing the peculiar incidents of an English manor never became so common in France as to require • specific name.
The modal' English manor derived its origin from subinfeudation [Fturtat SreTeal), as it existed before the modifitastioue of the system of tenures introduced in 1225 by Magna Chula, and the still more import ant alterations made in 12D11 by "The King's Statute of buying and selling Lands," commencing with the words " Quia Emptores Terra rum; and in 1321 by the statute ' De Prierogativa Regis,' by which statutes, the process of subinfeudation, or of granting land, etc. in fee eimple, to be hel I by the grantee as a tenant or vaasal to the grantor, was stopped.
Weer° a subinfeudation made by A to B extended to the whole of A's land, nothing remained in A but a seigniory with the ordinary feudal incidents of tenure, together with such rents or other services as might have been reserved upon the creation of the aubtenure. This interest in A was a seigniory in gross, that is, a seigniory held by itself, unattached to any Land, an incorporeal seigniory, termed by the French feudiate " un fief ca /air." But in the case of sub infeudation of pert of the land, the ordinary mode of proceeding was this :—A, a large proprietor, having a mansion and land at Dale, created a subtenure in a portion of his laud by granting such portion to B and his heirs, to hold of A and his heirs, as of A's manerium (mansion) of Dale, which words created an implied condition that B should perform the service of attending, with the other tenants of A bolding by virtue of similar aubinfeudations, at A's halmote of Dale, that is, at A's court meeting In the hall of A's mansion at Dale (afterwards called A's court-baron of his manor of Dale), for the purpose of deciding judicially all disputes among A's free tenants holding of him by the same tenure as B, in respect of their lands so holden, and also all actions brought by persons claiming such lands, Upon this subinfeudation being effected, A would continue to be the owner of the mansion of Dale and of that part of the land of Dale, of which he had made no subinfeudation, in demesne (in domiuico silo), —as his own immediate property ; and he would have the seigniory of lands of which B and others had been subinfeoiled, as a seigniory appendant or legally annexed to the mansion of Dale, and to the d =canes of Dale, of which the mansion formed part.
This conjoint or complex estate, taking its denomination from the mansion (manerium), which was considered as its head. and which, in the language of the Year Book of 14 Edward II. (Maynard, 426), " drew to itself all the sppendancies," by degrees acquired the name of muterium or manor.
A manor therefore or;o;naki consisted of lands in demesne, upon which the lord had a mansion, and to which lands and In insion, and more especially to the latter, there was appendant a seigniory over freeholders qualified in respect of quantity of estate (that is, by a tenancy for life st the least, if not a tenancy in fee-simple), and suffi cient in point of number, to constitute a courtsbaron. These free holders were called eaves:sore [Vavrasoa), and their lands "tone mental lands," that is, lands granted out in tenure, to distinguish them from the lord's demesnes. These tenemental lands, anciently known by the denomination of vavassorion, though held of the rnsuor and within the seigniory (or. as it was usually termed, within the fee) of the lord, were not considered as part of the manor; but the services issuing from such tenemental lands were part of the manor and essen tial to its existence.