DOCSLIB.ORG

Burgage Tenure in Mediaeval England

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Burgage Tenure in Mediaeval England BURGAGE TENURE IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND BY MORLEY DE WOLF HEMMEON, PH.D. SOMETIME AUSTIN TEACHING FELLOW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1914 COPYRIGHT, 1914 BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY PREFACE THE following monograph was first prepared under the guid­ ance and inspiration of the late Professor Charles Gross and was accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Harvard University in 1908. It was also awarded the Toppan Prize in the same year. Summaries of many of its conclusions were printed in the Law Quarterly Review, July and October, 1910, and January, 1911; but the present work contains much which did not appear there or in the essay as first submitted for the Doctorate. For careful revision of the manuscript and proof, for the preparation of the index, and for verification of matters of detail, the Department of History and the writer desire to express their sincere gratitude to Mr. G. W. Robinson, Secretary of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, to whom, in the absence of Dr. Hemmeon, these matters have been entrusted. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER I THE INCIDENTS OF BURGAGE TENURE THE THREE AIDS: RANSOM, KNIGHTING, MARRYING 11 MARRIAGE 12 WARDSHIP 15 RELIEF 18 HERIOT 22 ESCHEAT 24 FORFEITURE 33 FEALTY 45 HOMAGE 49 MILITARY SERVICE 51 RETRAIT FEODAL 52 ALIENATION FEES 54 INPENNY AND OUTPENNY 57 SUIT OF COURT 58 SUMMARY 59 CHAPTER II BURGAGE RENTS LANDGABLE AND HAWGABLE 62 LIST OF LANDGABLES 67 RENTS AND SALES OF MESSUAGES 80 THE NATURE OF THE BURGAGE 92 FOREIGN TENURES WITHIN THE BOROUGH BOUNDS 102 CHAPTER III MOBILITY DIVISIBILITY 108 FREE SALE 110 RESTRICTED SALE 114 INPENNY AND OUTPENNY 127 vii Viii CONTENTS PAGE FREE DEVISE 130 RESTRICTED DEVISE 135 THE RIGHTS OF THE FEMME COVERT 144 MORTGAGE 146 ACCUMULATION OF BURGAGES 148 CHAPTER IV ACCOMPANIMENTS AND COMPARISONS THE FIRMA BURGI 154 BURGAGE TENURE IN DOMESDAY 158 ENGLISH BURGAGE TENURE AND THE LAWS OF BRETEUIL .... 166 URBAN TENURE IN NORMANDY, THE NETHERLANDS, AND GERMANY . 172 CONCLUSION 183 APPENDIX URBAN TENURE IN GERMANY THE INCIDENTS OF WEICHBILD 193 GROUND RENTS 199 MOBILITY 201 BIBLIOGRAPHY 209 INDEX 219 ABBREVIATIONS C. A. D. Great Britain. — Public Record Office. A Descriptive Calendar of Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office. C. C. R. Calendar of the Charter Rolls Preserved in this Office, 1226-1344. C. J. M. Calendar of Inquisitions post Mortem and other Anal­ ogous Documents. C. P. R- Patent Rolls, 1216-32; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1232-1485. D. B. Domesday-Book. H. M. C. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. P. R. 0. Public Record Office. R. C. Record Commission. R. H. Illingworth, William, editor. Rotuli Eundredorum. R. S. Rolls Series. 0. anno or annis. c. or cir. circa. m. membrane. t. or temp, tempore or temporibus. ix BURGAGE TENURE IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND BURGAGE TENURE IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND INTRODUCTION IN the feudal ocean which once rolled over northern and western Europe appeared many islands, relics of a submerged and ante-feudal continent. These islands, some of which were artificial and imitative, were the urban communities. The waves of feudalism might wash their walls; in towns of artificial founda­ tion the spray might be flung into the narrow streets, but there their course was stayed. For the borough, Stadt, or ville had a tenure of its own, the tenure en bourgage of Normandy, the Weichbild of Germany, the Burgage Tenure of England. In view of its importance as presenting economic and legal conditions of land-holding almost the same as those of modern days, it seems fitting that the tenure of the English mediaeval boroughs should be treated as a subject in itself; and it is perhaps peculiar that no attempt to do so should have heretofore been made. In Germany urban tenure has been, and is yet to some extent, a question which has aroused much controversial dis­ cussion by which the literature of origins has been greatly en­ riched and the sum of human knowledge slightly increased. In Normandy and the Netherlands the tenure has been adequately treated. In England the tenure of land in the boroughs has received some attention from writers on burghal institutions in general, though usually in a way which indicates that, in their opinion, the tenurial side of borough development is hardly as important as the political side. This may be so, yet it seems as if the burgess's influence in shaping the political destiny of any­ thing except his own particular borough is almost a negligible quantity in English mediaeval history, while on the other hand the legal and economic example which he set in the matter of transfer of real property has its results in the modern land law of the realm. Even from the personal side there is reason for 3 4 BURGAGE TENURE IN ENGLAND investigating the tenure, for the close connection between tenure and status was a matter of great importance in the middle ages, a period when the former often determined the latter. Possibly one reason why writers on English burghal institutions have neglected the tenurial side of borough development is because they have commonly defined burgage tenure when they knew any law, or have had it defined for them when they knew none, as that species of the free or common socage tenure which was peculiar to cities and boroughs. Perhaps Coke should bear as much responsibility as any one for this definition; it is not at all satisfactory. The framers of the Great Charter would not have accepted it; they drew a clear line between holding in socage and holding in burgage.1 If one tenure be derived from the other this definition should be reversed, for burgage tenure shows greater age in the survival of at least one archaic custom.2 It is more logical as well as nearer in line with fact to regard each as the descendant of a common ancestor, the ante-feudal system of land-holding. But this is the entrance to the jungle of 'ori­ gins,' which might be less of a jungle were its so-called explorers to cease for a space from internecine strife. As feudalism becomes systematized, the burgage and the socage tenure resemble each other less and less. Their resemblance lies in freedom from the feudal incidents.3 Where they differ is in mobility; the land in the boroughs can be devised, sold, and divided. It is true that land held in socage might be trans­ ferred among the living. It was often sold and divided, but sale and division were attained only by permission, or payment therefor, or by circumventions of the law such as fines and re­ coveries;4 devise the socage tenure never knew. Within the boroughs the leading feature of the land, its mobility, was the leading feature of the land law; there was no need of resorting 1 Magna Carta, cap. 37. 1 Military heriot. 3 Socage tenure, however, was subject to aids and reliefs, and sometimes to wardship. 4 True also in the main of land held in feudal tenure even before 1290. The term circumvention is used advisedly and only as an expression of legal means of change. INTRODUCTION 5 to collusion when land was to be sold or divided. The need was the other way; there must be true deliverance made in respect to a sale; there must be publicity, else the sale might be invalid. The peculiar and distinguishing characteristic, however, of the borough land law, that feature which marked it off so sharply from the land law of the country, was ' freedom of devise.' Says Glanvill, " God alone and not man can make an heir." Yet even in Glanvill's day man could do in many boroughs what only God could do without the borough bounds. Burgage tenure then may be denned as a form of free tenure peculiar to boroughs, where a tenement so held might be alienated by gift, sale, or devise to a degree regulated only by the custom of the borough, unburdened by the incidents of feudalism or villeinage, divisible at pleasure, whose obligations began and ended in the payment of a nominal quit-rent, usually to an elected officer of the borough.1 The scanty literature of our subject may be said to begin with Glanvill's law-book, though there is little to be learned therefrom except that its author knew what burgage tenure was.2 Bracton gives it a little more attention. To him freedom of devise seemed to be its leading feature;3 Littleton saw the same aspect.4 The appended quotations show that the writers of these older law books had only a derived interest in the tenure of the boroughs and used its customs for illustration of or comparison with certain customs of the common land law. The reason for this is that pleas of land in the boroughs were nearly always held in the borough courts, than which few privileges were more highly valued by the English burgesses. As royal judges therefore, these earlier law writers seldom had the tenure brought within their purview; only in case of default of judgment or like ground 1 True only at a very early period of burgbal history; at a later period most tenements paid no quit-rents, possibly some had never paid any. 1 Treatise, bk. vii, ch. io et pass. ' De Legibus, i, p. 164: "si forte Iegatum fuerit, sicut in burgagiis"; ibid., i, p. 388: " cum laicum feodum legari non possit nisi in rebus specialibus, sicut burgagiis." * Coke, Commentary upon Littleton, sec.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Trial by Battle*
    Trial by Battle Peter T. Leesony Abstract For over a century England’s judicial system decided land disputes by ordering disputants’legal representatives to bludgeon one another before an arena of spectating citizens. The victor won the property right for his principal. The vanquished lost his cause and, if he were unlucky, his life. People called these combats trials by battle. This paper investigates the law and economics of trial by battle. In a feudal world where high transaction costs confounded the Coase theorem, I argue that trial by battle allocated disputed property rights e¢ ciently. It did this by allocating contested property to the higher bidder in an all-pay auction. Trial by battle’s “auctions” permitted rent seeking. But they encouraged less rent seeking than the obvious alternative: a …rst- price ascending-bid auction. I thank Gary Becker, Omri Ben-Shahar, Peter Boettke, Chris Coyne, Ariella Elema, Lee Fennell, Tom Ginsburg, Mark Koyama, William Landes, Anup Malani, Jonathan Masur, Eric Posner, George Souri, participants in the University of Chicago and Northwestern University’s Judicial Behavior Workshop, the editors, two anonymous reviewers, and especially Richard Posner and Jesse Shapiro for helpful suggestions and conversation. I also thank the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago, where I conducted this research, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. yEmail: [email protected]. Address: George Mason University, Department of Economics, MS 3G4, Fairfax, VA 22030. 1 “When man is emerging from barbarism, the struggle between the rising powers of reason and the waning forces of credulity, prejudice, and custom, is full of instruction.” — Henry C.
    [Show full text]
  • Halmote Records of Tottington Manor
    Warburton References in the Halmote Records of Tottington Manor The Halmote was a Court held by the Lord of the Manor, usually in his Hall. The name has Saxon origins. The Court combined the functions of a Court Leet in matters affecting the general populace, and Court Baron which dealt with the affairs of the Lord and his estates. The Manor of Tottington was large, stretching from Musbury and Cowpe in the north to Affetside in the west and Walshaw in the South West (Wikepedia). Thus it encompasses Edenfield where the Edenfield clan originates. In turn Tottington Manor was just part of The Honour of Clitheroe which was based on Clitheroe Castle. The Edenfield Clan was built from inputs from various people and essentially begins in 1559 when Thomas Warburton was still living, his son Francis was deceased, and his grandson Thomas was living. These dates are matched by an entry in the Halmote, but these are not the first references to Warburton (usually spelt Warburton) in the Halmote records. A number of the records refer to certain persons being granted use of certain land. In 1554 there is reference to a messuage and land being surrendered by Adam Rothwell to 4 persons (including Francis Warburton) as feoffees to the use of Peter Rothwell for 20 years after the death of Adam’s father. This seems to be an example of a practise of using trustees to bypasss obligations to the Lord of the Manor. Wikepidia describes the practise as follows: The practice of enfeoffing feoffees with fees, that is to say of granting legal [possession of] one’s land-holdings ("holdings" as only the king himself "owned" land..) to a group of trusted friends or relatives or other allies whilst retaining use of the lands, began to be widespread by about 1375.The purpose of such an action was two-fold: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • GLOSSARY for Principles of Title Insurance
    1 GLOSSARY The following materials represent a glossary of commonly used real estate terms reprinted, in part, from the First American Title Insurance Company Underwriting Library (with permission). This originally appeared in the first edition of “Principles of Title Insurance – Tennessee” and is reposted via a link in the second edition of that publication. A.L.T.A. American Land Title Association. Organization composed of title insurance firms which sets standards for the industry, including title insurance forms used on a national basis. ABATEMENT A reduction, a decrease, or a diminution. The suspension or cessation, in whole or in part, of a continuing charge, such as rent. ABSTRACT A brief summary of the important points of a given instrument. ABSTRACT CONTINUATION (Also known as abstract extension and also as supplemental abstract.) A partial abstract beginning at the terminal date of an existing abstract and showing instruments recorded between such terminal date and a subsequent date. ABSTRACT OF TITLE A summary of transactions affecting the title to a piece of land. ABUT To touch or border upon. A piece of land bordering on a street or an adjoining piece of property is said to abut such street or property. ACCELERATION CLAUSE A note, bond or other credit agreement clause advancing the date of maturity of a Deed of Trust or mortgage upon the happening of a certain event. ACCESS RIGHT Landowner's right to have ingress and egress from landowner's property to a public street. ACCOMMODATION An obligation assumed without consideration. ACCOMMODATION RECORDING The recordation of an instrument without an assumption of responsibility for the correctness or validity of the instrument.
    [Show full text]
  • The Salisbury Oath: Its Feudal Implications
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1943 The Salisbury Oath: Its Feudal Implications Harry Timothy Birney Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Birney, Harry Timothy, "The Salisbury Oath: Its Feudal Implications" (1943). Master's Theses. 53. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/53 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1943 Harry Timothy Birney THE SALISBURY OATH - ITS FEUDAL IMPLICATIONS by HARRY TIMOTHY BIRNEY, S.J., A.B. A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN LOYOLA UNIVERSITY J~e 1943 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 CHAPTER I FEUDALI SM - IN THEORY • • • • • • • • • • • 3 II FEUDALISTIC TENDENCIES IN ENGLAND BEFORE 1066 ••••••••••••••••••••• 22 III NORMAN FEUDALISM BEFORE 1066 • • • • 44 IV ANGLO - NORMAN FEUDALISM PRECEDING THE OATH OF SALISBURy........... 62 V THE SALISBURY OATH • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 81 CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 94 BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • •
    [Show full text]
  • LLM Succession Thesis
    Bridging the Gap Between Civil and Common Law: An Analysis of the Proposed EU Succession Regulation by Philip D Bremner LLB (Hons) (Aberdeen) A Thesis Presented for the Degree of Master of Laws at the University of Aberdeen 2010 Declaration I, Philip Dennis Bremner, declare that this thesis has been composed by myself; has not been accepted in any previous application for a degree; that the work is my own; that all quotations have been distinguished by the use of quotation marks; and the sources of information have been specifically acknowledged. Philip D Bremner 20 September 2010 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the University of Aberdeen School of Law and College of Arts and Social Sciences along with the Clark Foundation for Legal Education, CB Davidson Bequest Fund and Vikram Reddy Trust for their financial support. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Professor Paul Beaumont, for the many engaging discussions we had, as well as my colleagues in the private international law reading group for their helpful comments and advice. Finally I would like to thank my parents for their continuing love and support. 3 Contents Summary 5 Introduction 6 Chapter 1: Overview 12 1.1 Background 12 1.2 Green Paper 16 1.3 The Draft Regulation 19 1.4 Domestic Response 26 Chapter 2: Claw-back 32 2.1 Introduction 32 2.2 Overview 36 2.3 Historical Perspective 42 2.3.1 Overview 42 2.3.2 Historical notions of the nature of ownership 49 2.3.3 Early restrictions on the freedom of inter vivo alienations 52 2.3.4 Legal Rights and Claw-back in Scotland 63 2.3.5 Modern-day implications 70 2.4 A possible way forward? 72 2.5 Conclusions 79 Chapter 3: Connecting Factor 80 3.1 Introduction 80 3.2 Reception of Domicile into English and Scots Law 83 3.3 From Domicile to Habitual Residence via Nationality 98 3.4 Habitual Residence: In Search of a Definition 111 3.5 Conclusions 121 Conclusion 122 Bibliography 127 4 Summary In October 2009, the Commission of the European Union published its proposal for a regulation dealing with the private international law aspects of succession.
    [Show full text]
  • 5 the Mystery of Property: Inheritance and Industrialization in England and Japan Alan Macfarlane
    5 The mystery of property: inheritance and industrialization in England and Japan Alan Macfarlane 'Well! Some people talk of morality, and some of religion, but give me a little snug property' (Edgeworth, cited in Goody 1962: 284). The mystery In one way or another most of the great social theorists have seen the development of individualized property relations as the central and decisive factor in the rise of modern civilization and, in particular, capitalism. The link was apparent to Locke at the end of the seventeenth century (1956: 43, 48, 63). Private property was a natural right and the sole purpose of the state was its protection. The security of property was likewise seen as the basis of liberty and wealth by the eighteenth-century political economists (Millar 1812: 114-15; Kames 1796, 1: 91; Smith 1976: 415). Nineteenth-century theorists continued to stress the central importance of property distinctions. De Tocqueville (1956: 184) noted that wealth and private property seemed to be connected in England, Maine thought that 'we are indebted to the peculiarly absolute English form of ownership for such an achievement as the cultivation of the soil of North America' (1875: 126). T6nnies believed that the opposition between private and communal property was the essence of the distinction between gemeinschaft and gesellschaft (1955: 75, 60). But it was, of course, Karl Marx who most famously emphasized the connections. In his earlier philosophical notebooks he outlined how the history of the growth of landed property mirrored the growth of capitalism (1973:107, 252; 1964: 27). Then in a central passage in Capital he argued that 'The legal view..
    [Show full text]
  • Quia Emptores, Subinfeudation, and the Decline of Feudalism In
    QUIA EMPTORES, SUBINFEUDATION, AND THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: FEUDALISM, IT IS YOUR COUNT THAT VOTES Michael D. Garofalo Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2017 APPROVED: Christopher Fuhrmann, Committee Chair Laura Stern, Committee Member Mickey Abel, Minor Professor Harold Tanner, Chair of the Department of History David Holdeman, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Victor Prybutok, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Garofalo, Michael D. Quia Emptores, Subinfeudation, and the Decline of Feudalism in Medieval England: Feudalism, it is Your Count that Votes. Master of Science (History), August 2017, 123 pp., bibliography, 121 titles. The focus of this thesis is threefold. First, Edward I enacted the Statute of Westminster III, Quia Emptores in 1290, at the insistence of his leading barons. Secondly, there were precedents for the king of England doing something against his will. Finally, there were unintended consequences once parliament passed this statute. The passage of the statute effectively outlawed subinfeudation in all fee simple estates. It also detailed how land was able to be transferred from one possessor to another. Prior to this statute being signed into law, a lord owed the King feudal incidences, which are fees or services of various types, paid by each property holder. In some cases, these fees were due in the form of knights and fighting soldiers along with the weapons and armor to support them. The number of these knights owed depended on the amount of land held. Lords in many cases would transfer land to another person and that person would now owe the feudal incidences to his new lord, not the original one.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origins of Property in England Robert C
    College of William & Mary Law School William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository Faculty Publications Faculty and Deans 1985 The Origins of Property in England Robert C. Palmer Repository Citation Palmer, Robert C., "The Origins of Property in England" (1985). Faculty Publications. 901. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/901 Copyright c 1985 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs The Origins of Property 1n England Robert C. Palmer The English common law of real property, as S.F.C. Milsom has argued, took shape between 1153 and 1215. 1 The common law gave royal protection to free tenements, replacing feudal relationships as the primary bond structuring society. The law thus constituted the institutional core of the Robert C. Palmer is the Adler Fellow of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law and Assistant Professor of Law at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, The College of William and Mary. Various versions of this paper have been given, notably at the University of Chicago Law School, the New York University seminar in law and history, and the Sixth British Legal History Conference. The criticisms at those meetings have proved uniformly helpful. This article was written with the aid of a summer research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I would like to thank Kathleen Crotty, my research assistant at Marshall­ Wythe. I. The short forms for frequently cited works, primary and secondary respectively, are the following: Bracton: Henry de Bracton, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Blackstone, the Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Blackstone, the Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law Citation for published version: Cairns, JW 1985, 'Blackstone, the Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law', Historical Journal, vol. 28, pp. 711-717. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00003381 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00003381 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: Historical Journal Publisher Rights Statement: ©Cairns, J. (1985). Blackstone, the Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law. Historical Journal, 28, 711-17doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00003381 General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 The Historical Journal, 28, 3 (1985), pp. 711-717 Printed in Great Britain BLACKSTONE, THE ANCIENT CONSTITUTION AND THE FEUDAL LAW* JOHN CAIRNS University of Edinburgh
    [Show full text]
  • Mutual Obligations of Feudal System
    Mutual Obligations Of Feudal System If coarse-grained or thieving Edmund usually immortalize his pheon reminisces spankingly or dribbling affectionately and thenceforward, how indexical is Frankie? Michail is gasiform: she bituminising derogatorily and depolymerizing her pickaxes. Macrocephalic Stan always hatches his handsels if Jackie is syncarpous or firm inexactly. They were numerous wars created vassalage, feudal mutual obligations to the size, despite their fiscal, taira clan ties of What documents do a need every claim Jobseekers Allowance? Explain different mutual obligations of the feudal system ppt. Has coronavirus landed you at Centrelink for the first stroke Here's. GUIDED READING Feudalism in Europe. The Feudal System was based on Mutual obligations in turn of military protection. Feudal Society Roslyn Public Schools. Chapter 132 Quiz Flashcards Quizlet. The impact of medieval hindu polities as feudal mutual obligations system of a home. 132 Feudalism in Europe. The predominant of mutual loyalty between tuition and vassal which formed such an. Name name Period FEUDALISM REVIEW Chapter 132 Social Structure of Feudalism Explain these mutual obligations of the feudal system which why the feudal. Medieval community was running network of mutual obligations Even kings and. The mutual obligations of the feudal system Answers. New name which of mutual obligations feudal system acted in their encounter of their households; disinherited tenants against the result of entire zone was to the measure of. The Middle Ages. System with each hierarchy of social classes bound to mutual obligations and. Canonical practice which became part another the feudal system. A not of loyalties and protections based on mutual obligations feudalism.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nature of Land Ownership and the Protection of the Purchaser
    Afe Babalola University: Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy Vol. 1 Iss. 1 (2013) pp. 1-20 THE NATURE OF LAND OWNERSHIP AND THE PROTECTION OF THE PURCHASER Clement C Chigbo* ABSTRACT This article examines the nature of ownership of land and derivative or subordinate real- rights under English law drawing some comparison with Romanic-Dutch ownership while arguing that the Anglo-American estate’ or interest’ in land is a mere semantic conundrum. It is the position of this writer that the concept of ownership in English law of real property, which dominantly influences our real property law in Nigeria and other common law jurisdictions such as the Bahamas and Jamaica, has not brought the desirable clarity to our real property jurisprudence/practice in Nigeria. The unfortunate problems faced by purchasers of real estate in some common law jurisdiction are also briefly examined in this article. The article seeks to advance a solution to these problems and in this context the writer strongly suggests that a land registration system of some model should be adopted in Nigeria and the Bahamas to protect purchasers of real estates and guarantee greater security of title and clarity in our conveyancing practice. INTRODUCTION Land is elemental. It is where life begins and it is where life ends. Land provides the physical substratum for human activity; it is the essential base of all social and commercial interaction. Land law is, accordingly, that part of the law which governs the allocation of rights and obligations in relation to ‘real’ or ‘immovable’ property. We spend scarcely a moment out of contact with terra firma and our very existence is constantly sustained and shaped by the natural and constructed world around us.
    [Show full text]
  • The Medieval English Marriage Portion from Cases of Mort D'ancestor and Formedon
    Volume 38 Issue 4 Article 2 1993 The Medieval English Marriage Portion from Cases of Mort D'Ancestor and Formedon C.M.A. McCauliff Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/vlr Part of the Property Law and Real Estate Commons Recommended Citation C.M.A. McCauliff, The Medieval English Marriage Portion from Cases of Mort D'Ancestor and Formedon, 38 Vill. L. Rev. 933 (1993). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/vlr/vol38/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Villanova Law Review by an authorized editor of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Digital Repository. McCauliff: The Medieval English Marriage Portion from Cases of Mort D'Ancest 1993] THE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH MARRIAGE PORTION FROM CASES OF MORT D'ANCESTOR AND FORMEDON C.M.A. MCCAULIFF* I. THE MARRIAGE PORTION AND THE WRIT OF MORT D 'ANCESTOR .......................................... 935 A. Definition of the Phrase "seised as offee" ............. 936 B. On Whose Seisin Should the Demandant Claim? ........ 941 C. Problems Arising From Subsequent Alienation ........... 947 D. Pleading in a Case of Mort d'Ancestor ................. 951 E. Choice of Mort d'Ancestor or Formedon ................ 956 F. Reversions after a Marriage Portion ................... 962 II. THE MARRIAGE PORTION AND THE WRITS OF FORMEDON 968 A. History of the Writs of Formedon ..................... 969 B. Counts for the Writs of Formedon ..................... 981 C. The ConditionalFee and Writs of Formedon: Choice of W rits Revisited ..................................... 990 III. CONCLUSION ...........................................
    [Show full text]