UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SCHOOL OF LAW LIBRARY If? S/S196 xog O OC9U SS300V vion Q3AI303a SM z 3na M -mv zooz SBM i! qojq/w uioj^ Ajejqjj aq) O) (euaieiu siqj ujn;ay 889I.-S6006 VINUOdHVO 'S3H30NV SOT 88tS6 xog . zuon Bu^JBd - 3AUQ BABN a 90S Advusn IVNOIOBU ]0 OLegal Classic Series LITTLETON'S TENURES Xegal Classic Series QLANV1LLE Introduction by Joseph Henry Beale, Jr., A.M., LL.B. BRITTON Introduction by Hon. Simeon L. Baldwin, LL.D. LITTLETON'S TENURES Introduction by Eugene Wambaugh, LL.D. MIRROUR OF JUSTICES Introduction by Hon. William C. Robinson, LL.D. LITTLETON'S TENURES IN ENGLISH EDITED BY EUGENE WAMBAUGH, LL.D. PROFESSOR OP LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON, D. C. JOHN BYRNE & CO. LAW PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS 1903 1903 COPYRIGHT. 1903, BY JOHN BYRNE & CO. THIS EDITION IS DEDICATED TO THE LEARNED SOCIETY WHEREIN LITTLETON FOR MORE THAN FOUR HUNDRED YEARS HAS BEEN REGARDED WITH PECULIAR VENERATION- CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE V INTRODUCTION I. Biography xi II. Bibliography Ixvii THE TENURES. BOOK I. CHAPTER PAGK I. Fee Simple 1 II. Fee Tail 7 III. Tenants in Tail after Possibility, etc 13 IV. Curtesy of England 15 V. Dower 16 VI. Tenant for Life ;. 24 VII. Tenant for Years 26 VIII. Tenant at Will 31 IX. Tenant by Copy 33 X. Tenant by the Verge 36 BOOK II. I. Homage 39 II. Fealty 43 III. Escuage 45 IV. Knight's Service 49 V. Socage 58 VI. Frankalmoign 66 6 CONTENTS. PACK VTL Homage Ancestral 71 VIII. Grand Serjeanty 75 IX. Petit Serjeanty 78 X. Tenure in Burgage 79 XI. VUlenage 84 XH. Rents. 100 BOOK m. I. Parceners 112 n. Parceners by Custom 122 HI. Joint-tenants 129 IV. Tenants in Common 137 V. Estates upon Condition 153 VI. Descents which Toll Entries 185 VII. Continual Claim 197 VIII. Releases 212 IX. Confirmation 239 X. Attornment 251 XI. Discontinuance 269 XH. Remitter 293 Xm. Warranty 312 Tabula 339 Epilogus 341 PREFACE. UNFORTUNATELY, it is not possible to fix the exact date of Sir Thomas Littleton's birth but the was ; year certainly in the earliest part of the fifteenth century, and thus this edition of The Tenures serves to commem- orate though, doubtless, only approximately the five hundredth anniversary. The occasion obviously makes it proper to present a somewhat elaborate account of the author's life and to give as complete a list as practicable of the editions of this book. Hence, in a search for facts or points of view heretofore possibly overlooked, much time has been spent in the neighborhoods where Littleton lived and worked, and still more time with manuscripts and printed books in many hospitable libraries. Yet while it has seemed appropriate to prepare thus a new biographical and bibliographical introduction, it has seemed equally requisite not to give a new trans- lation, but simply to edit the translation adopted by Coke. This familiar version, to be sure, is not perfect. v PREFACE. vi It appears to be chiefly a reprint of the work of some early and rather unscholarly translator, with merely such modernization in language as was required by the taste of Coke's day. It contains even more numerous interpolations than are pointed out by Coke himself. It omits many authentic passages. Now and then it mistranslates. Nevertheless it has several strong rec- ommendations. To begin with a matter of form, this version is expressed in an archaic phraseology peculiarly appropriate for such a book, and, fortunately, the only archaic phraseology with which all present readers may fairly be expected to be acquainted the diction of Shakespeare and of the King James Bible. To pass to a more practical point, this version long ago became the standard representative of the words of Littleton, and it has been quoted in countless arguments and opin- treaties in an edition intended as ions and ; and hence, is this present edition to be as serviceable as pos- sible to the profession, this common version should be followed, unless, indeed, such a course will lead to harm. To come finally to matter of substance, upon careful examination this version, while open to criticism as already indicated, has been found to give almost inva- riably an accurate view of the author's meaning. These, then, are the reasons for deciding to reprint, with neither omission nor addition, the now venerable stan- dard version as given in Coke upon Littleton, and to insert such marks and foot-notes as will enable the PREFACE. Vii reader to make amendments, if he wishes, in accord- ance with the most trustworthy editions in Law French. No changes have been made in the text, with the ex- ceptions that antique punctuation and capitalization and spelling have not always been preserved, and that a very few peculiarly annoying mistranslations, based upon mere misprints and the like, have been corrected in instances which the foot-notes fully explain. Pas- sages believed to be spurious have been inclosed in brackets. Passages that ought to be inserted have been printed in the foot-notes, and have been there inclosed in braces. Many other amendments have been sug- gested in the foot-notes. The rule has been to disre- gard matters of no appreciable importance; but old- fashioned standards have sometimes been taken into ac- count in deciding what is important, and thus it has " " " " happened that variations as to item and nota and " &c." have received attention in accordance with the views emphatically expressed by one whom an editor of Littleton learns to respect more and more Sir Ed- ward Coke. E. W. January 1, 1903. INTRODUCTION. I. BIOGRAPHY. ONE of the most famous books ever written is this small volume containing an orderly and exact presen- tation of land law at the time midway between the Nor- man Conquest and the present day. There have been so many changes in the law that doubtless many lawyers consider this treatise obsolete. Yet land law is al- tered less rapidly and less radically than other branches, and this is one reason why this little classic has outlived the author four centuries and even if the of by ; lapse time had rendered the work useless as an introduc- tion to existing law, its arrangement, conciseness, and accuracy would continue to gain for it the favor of any one who appreciates a masterpiece. Littleton is far from being either the earliest or the latest of the great legal authors. Glanville, Bracton, Littleton, Coke, Blackstone: these are the five masters. The approximate dates of these five writers are strangely easy for an American lawyer to bear in mind. Glan- xi x ii INTRODUCTION. ville wrote just before, and Bracton just after, the sign- ing of Magna Charta gave a starting point for Amer- ican constitutional law. Littleton wrote just before the discovery of America created the possibility that not merely a few islands but the greater part of the world may be governed by law that had its earliest home in England. Coke wrote in the time of Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts, when Shakespeare and Bacon and the King James version of the Bible were unconsciously laying the foundations of American thought and letters, and when the colonists of Virginia and New England were bringing the English law to its new and larger home. Finally, Blackstone wrote just before the ideals encouraged by religion, literature, and the law resulted in American independence. Although Littleton stands third in chronological order among the five famous authors named, there is one point of view from which he may fairly be called the earliest writer the law of great upon England ; for, whereas in form or in phraseology, though not in es- sence, the works of Glanville and Bracton are some- what affected by Justinian's Institutes, this treatise by Littleton is wholly free from any tincture of the law of Rome. In short, this is the first important law book that is thoroughly English. Ap- parently, Roman law was not studied by Little- ton. The reason for the appearance of a distinctly na- tional book is not difficult to find. The reforms of INTRODUCTION. Henry the Second, Edward the First, and Edward the Third had resulted in a fairly complete system. The land law had always been largely the mere local law of England; and it became still more strictly local 1 through Magna Charta, and the statutes of Merton, of 2 3 Westminster I., of Gloucester, of Westminster II. (De donis 4 of III. conditionalibus) , and Westminster 5 (Quia emptores}. The development of a systematic body of law had been still further aided by the Year Books. Finally, the growth of the inns of court, which date either their foundation or their conspicuous im- portance from the fourteenth century, had furnished an organized profession, studying the English law in both a practical and a scientific spirit. The inevitable re- sult must have been before long a law book that should be English through and through a book built upon the author's own perception of practices actually existing and upon his knowledge of English statutes and of Eng- lish decisions. Enough is known of Littleton's professional career to explain how he happened to be well fitted to write a little is known of his his such book ; but birth, early training, his character, and, in short, of the man him- self. In the neighborhood called Frankley, six miles south- west of the center of a peculiarly modern city, Birming- 8 i 20 H. III. (1235-6). 2 3 E. I. (1275).