Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/283

 OBSCURE WORDS IN CHARTERS. i65 a distress upon his tenant, he is said " advocare " — to avow it : and this use of the word may be thought to suggest a more probable explanation of the passage in the Dartmoor Compotus. But I think it will be unnecessary to rely upon mere conjecture. Although the expression has not occurred to me in any other Devonshire instrument, it is illustrated by the language of records in other counties, and of extents and charters in the Principality and Marches of Wales. Among the extents of alien priories in the Isle of Wight, 23 Ed. III. (Add. MSS, No. 6166, Brit. Mus.), I find, at the close of a list of tenantiy in Brightestone manor, the head of " Capitagia " (called also " chevagium " in the same instru- ment), " ad festum S. Michaelis," followed by such entries as this : " De Johanne atte Dole et filio ejus pro advocatione habenda ad terminum vita) suae, un. lib. cera?, vel 6"^." Again, under Boucombe, 28 Ed. III. : "Richardus Lillesdone reddit per annum ad festum S. Michaelis pro advocatione habenda, 1*^," — In neither of these instances is any land referred to as held by the party. In the Ramsey register (Harl. MSS. 445), a court roll of Cranficld enumerates certain tenants for life " quibus non licebit ponere se in advocatione alterius domini in prejudicium dornini abbatis." The instruments in this register date fi^om Rich. II. to Hen. VI. In a charter of Llewellyn, purporting to bear date A.D. 1198,^ that prince grants to the Abbey of Aberconway "quod licite possint recipere ad habitum suum et ad famulatum suum et servitia liberos spadarios meos et homines de advoca- tione mea," &c. In this instance the homines de advocatione are associated with military tenants, but in other cases they seem to rank with villani, and are called advocarii. Thus in the Extent of North AVales,^ certain tenants " et omnes alii nativi et advocarii istius commoti, et tam villani liberorum quam nativi," &c., pay 8/. at Easter and ]Iichaelmas. In another part of the same Extent ^ we have " In villa de Llanvaylan sunt 7 tenentes qui sunt in advocaria ; " and, again, in p. 98, there is a hst of " villani de advocaria." It should seem, however, that these tenants were in fact, or might be, of free condition ; for to a petition to the Black - Record of Carnarvon, p. 147, ed. 1 !!."?{). they are called "homines avowariEB Do- ^ Ibid. 2.5. See also, ibid. 3,5. mini Principis." The printed copy has it ^ Ibid. J>7 ; see also, p. 99. In ji. 171 " a/(owario.' • VOL. VI. 7.