Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/111

 Ch. 6. the kings of England from the conquet downwards; that the tenants herein "villana faciunt ervitia, ed certa et determinata;" that they cannot aliene or transfer their tenements by grant or feoffment, any more than pure villeins can; but mut urrender them to the lord or his teward, to be again granted out and held in villenage. And from thee circumtances we may collect, that what he here decribes is no other than an exalted pecies of copyhold, ubiting at this day, viz. the tenure in antient demene; to which, as partaking of the baenes of villenage in the nature of it's ervices, and the freedom of ocage in their certainty, he has therefore given a name compounded out of both, and calls it villanum ocagium.

demene conits of thoe lands or manors, which, though now perhaps granted out to private ubjects, were actually in the hands of the crown in the time of Edward the confeor, or William the conqueror; and o appear to have been by the great urvey in the exchequer called domeday book. The tenants of thee lands, under the crown, were not all of the ame order or degree. Some of them, as Britton tetifies, continued for a long time pure and abolute villeins, dependent on the will of the lord: and thoe who have ucceeded them in their tenures now differ from common copyholders in only a few points. Others were in great meaure enfranchied by the royal favour: being only bound in repect of their lands to perform ome of the better ort of villein ervices, but thoe determinate and certain; as, to plough the king's land, to upply his court with proviions, and the like; all of which are now changed into pecuniary rents: and in conideration hereof they had many immunities and privileges granted to them ; as, to try the right of their property in a peculiar court of their own, called a court of antient demene, by a peculiar proces denominated a writ of right cloe ; not to pay toll or taxes; not to contribute to the expenes of knights of the hire; not to be put on juries, and the like. Rh