V. Manors, Castomary.—So much importance formerly attached to the possession of a principal mansion at which the services of tenants might be rendered, that a person holding lands in customary villenage might grant portions of hie villenage to be holden of the grantor, for as great an estate as the grantor had, as of his mansion or manerium. The estate of the grantor, which, after this operation, would consist of the mansion and the other ungranted portions of the villenage, with the services of the grantees appendant thereto, was called a customary manor.
Tile estate of a person to whom the lord of a manor has granted the freehold and seigniory of all the copyholda within the manor or within a certain district, has been sometimes loosely called "a customary manor." But such an estate cannot, in any sense, be said to consist of demesnes and services.
VI. Mon ors 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 paw-ming certain customary privileges, supposed, by Lord Coke and others, to be derived from the indulgence 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 leaseholders, and even the lord himself, are strictly speaking tenants in ancient demesne. In these customary tenures the freehold is not in the loril, but in the tenant, who is there fore called a customary freeholder ; and it does not appear to be neces sary 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 free holds held by the "tenants in socage in ancient tenure," now called " tenants in ancient demesne " VII. Manors in Border Counties.—The exposed state of the northern borders of England, 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 freeholders; though here the freehold is in the lord, and the timber and mines belong to him, and not (as in the tenure in ancient demesne) to the tenants ; but they are so called because they are allowed 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 uncertain to make immediate dispositions of their property. •
VIII. Manors, Assessionabk—A term peculiar to that part of the Viii. Manors, Assessionabk—A term peculiar to that part of the domain of the Duke of Cornwall [WALES, PRiccE OF] which is situate within the county of Cornwall. consisting of seventeen manors, namely, Launceston, Trematon, Tyntagell, Restormel, Stoke-Clinisland, Tybeste, Tewington, Helston-in-Kerrier, Moresk, Ty warnhaile, Penkneth, Penlyn, Rellaton, Helston-in-Trigshire, Liskeard, Calatock, 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 commissioned to visit these manors in succession, and to assess ,the lord's demesnes, that 'is, to let them at such rents and upon such terms as might appear to them to be advantageous to the duchy. The courts held by the commissioners for the purpose of exercising the authority thus delegated to them were called assessions, or courts of assession. The course usually was to let the land until the next asseaaion. From the conventions (covenants or engagements) entered into by the persona to whom those demesnes were so arrented, .
the interest demised was called a tenure in convention, and the tenants were styled conventionariea. These demises were made both to free men and villeins; the former being called free conventionaries, the latter villein or native conventionaries. The latter class appears to have become extinct in the 16th century.
By degrees the conventionary tenants acquired an inheritable interest, in the certainty of the renewal of their holdings in favour of them; selves and their descendants at each successive assession. The con ventionary tenant thus acquired, like a copyholder of inheritance, an interest freehold in point of duration, without a freehold tenure.
In conventionary tenements the minerals 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 r. Brenton, 3 Mann. and Ryl., 133.364).