Page:A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire Chunk 1.djvu/12

 x INTRO DUCTION. Jaron bp cnurr, A dignity attached to the possession of certain lands held, according to the feudal system, directly under the crown, and conditionally upon the performance of some honorary services to the J, j : kiiig; such as attending him in the field and the cabinet, and furnishing a stipulated quota of knights, or men-at-arms; which quota wes regulated by the territorial possessions of the baron, those possessions being divided into allotments, for each of which be was required to provide a knight, armed cap-fl-pie, whenever the sovereign commanded his presence iii the field; hence, according to the number of warriors the feudal lord provided, he was said to possess so many Ieaiq/?ts’/ies. But in the reign of King JOHN, an alteration of great importance took place in the rights of the Barons and tenants in capite, for only the principal Barons, or Baroaes i/b/ores, were summoned to attend parliament by particular writs from the King; and the rest, who acquired the appellation of Ba cones JIlioo peg, were called by one general summons from the sheriffs of their respective counties; and in the following reign,t some new law is said to have been made, by which it was established that no person, though possessed of a barony, should come to parliament without being expressly summoned by the King’s writ. Barony by tenure has ceased for ages, and, indeed, its very existence is a matter of serious question and doubt. Of late years claims have been made to dignities by right of tenure ; but, as yet, none of these claims have proved successful. There is, however, one earldom extant—that of Arundel, which the ducal house of Norfolk enjoys by the feudal tennre of Arundel Castlo ; but this honour endures by special act of parliament, passed in the 3rd year of KING CHARLES I. To Barons by tenure succeeded aran 1ll! Writ, Or persons elevated to the rank of nobility by being summoned to attend the king in council, or parliament; which writs were of that description called firer/a c/a eec, from being closed with wax, and impressed with the great seal of England. The first of these summonses upon record appears to have been tested on the 24th of December, in the 49th year of HENRy III. ; from which period no similar writ seems to have issued until the 22nd year of Enwxnn I., whon about sixty persons were summoned to attend the king, “wheresoever he might be, to advise on the aflhirs of the kingdom ;“ but it has boon questioned whether that summons constituted a peer of parliament. To establish an hereditary Barony by Writ, it was requisite, according to some, says Sir William Blackstone, that two writs of summons should have issued, and a sitting in two parliaments have taken place ; but this is a misapprehension ; for in the case of the Barony of Clifton, there was but one writ and one sitting, and that barony was allowed. Baronies by Writ are heritable by heirs male or female ; but in the event of the decease of the baron without issue male, and with more daughters than one, the barony falls into abeyancet amongst them, and so continues until none but one of the daughters, or the solo heir of one of the daughters, survive. The crown cah, however, at any time especially interfere, and terminate the abeyance in favour of any of the co-heirs, but it cannot alienate the barony from the representatives of the first baron it is imperative that it be conferred upon one of those. The mode of terminating an abeyance in favour of a commoner is, by summoning the individual by the title of the barony which had been in abeyance. The course observed towards a peer of a lnghar dignity is, the issue of letters-patent by the crown in confirmation of the barony; and a similar conrse, that of patent, is adopted towards heiresses. * Lord Coke has observed, that in ancient records the Barony included all the nobility of England; because, regnhu-ly, all nohlcmen were Barons, though they had a higher dignity; and the great conucil of the nobility, when there were besides Earls and Barons Dnkes and Marquesses, were all comprehended under the name of the Council mb liaronage.” t Matthew Psrie states, that there were two hnndred and fifty haro,,ies in the time of HENRY Ill.; but there were not so many barons, for several feudal lords held a plurality of haronies. In this reign, the prerogative of the croon regardimg l.smrons was settled by an act of parliament, passed in consequence of the quarrel between the king and Simo,, de Mentfort ; and theneeforward no nobleman could sit in parlianent without a writ of enmanens. But there w-as this n,aterial diffe,-enee between the greater and the lesser barens;—these u-crc snnmened at the pleasure of the crown; those, as a matter of right. z Auavxes.—Wben this ,nmmeritance (a barony falling amongst co-heiresses) is in the dosmaut state, it is said to he in abeyance; not in the ordinn-y senss of the term in wl,ich it is applied to an estate in feesimple, or freebold in suspense, floating, fixing nowhere, and vestimig in no one; but it simply denotes that time title to a barony whieb baa descended upon and is vested in co-heirs, remains in them in an active and dormant state, incapable of being aseerted or being enjoyed. It falls into abeyance because, in point of right; no one co-heir can snstai,, a claim to it, and because all the co-heirs together, though they constitute the complete Itoh’ to the ancestor, cannot claim it with effect, and therefore cannot claim it at all.—Cauasa upesm Diyiaities.