Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/296

 Chnp; VlIL OF M A N C HESTER. 2S5 tinwrefted import * of the word, an Obit or Mortuary, iiifffc ciently evinces of itfelf*. Britifli certainly is the famous Mer± cheta of the ScdttHh ftuds' in particular, which has given occa* fion to that fi£Hon of- folly in the beft hiftories of Scotland, that the lord had a privilege to fleep with the bride of his vaflal upon her wedding-night, which has been explained by derivations equally obfcerie and ftupid, and which is apparently nothing more than the Mefch-ed of Howel Dha, the daughter-hood, or the fine for the marriage of a daughter 4 Britifh certainly h the feudal appellation of Villain, appearing equally in the law* of the Britons, Bilain or Filein, and fignifying an Hulbandman Or Peafant 48. And Britifh certainly are the two equally welli- kn6wn and peculiarly feudal denominations of Baron and Ma- the former, like villain, fp abfolutely appropriated, that the ap- pearance of it has been even adduced as a pofitive argument againft the authenticity of. fome Saxon charters 4 *. They both occur in the antient Inftitutcs of Wales, and Manour an hundred an # d. twenty years abfolutely before theConqueft; are written Barwa and Maenawr, and fignify a MilitaryMan and a Diftrift '*. And Allodium, J think, is derived from the fame language. Allodial land is an eftate difcharged from all the feudal fervices, arid, as I have obferved already, muft naturally have been fiich only as belonged to the relations of the Crown. And' the eftatfes of the Ealodeu or the members of the royal family, the -'chil- dren the nephews or the coufins of the reigning monarch, are all expref&ly exempted from the imposition of the Ebediw in the Laws of Howel Dha, and are a&ually the only lands in tht " kingdom that are favoured with fuch an exemption * * The prefcribed mode of defcent for all the noble' or freehold lands in the kingdom at this period muft have been by the courfe of the cuftom which is denominated Gavelkind, This antierit ufage appears equally in Ireland and in Wales, is recorded as early as the tenth century in the laws of the latter, and exifted for ages afterward the one univerfal rule of inheritance, ih b6th ' Familiar among the Saxons afterward, it was allowed to operate M m only
 * nour,. though bqth have been appropriated to the Normans, and