ance of the lands, and the lord of the manor will be compellable to make admittance upon his requisition (x). The Court of Queen's Bench refused to interfere by mandamus in a question as to the surrenderee of a trustee appointed under the statute 11 Geo. 4 & 1 Will. 4, c. 60, s. 8; that court thinking, as the Court of Chancery had original jurisdiction, it was the proper court to carry into effect the purposes of the act (y). Bankruptcy copyholds. In the case of the bankruptcy of a copyholder a Court of fine is not due until a surrender to a purchaser. By may self the Bankrupt Law Consolidation Act, 1849, it is enacted with respect to copyholds that the Court of Bankruptcy shall have power to sell, and by deed indented and enrolled in the courts of the manor or manors whereof the lands respectively may be holden, to convey for the benefit of the creditors any copyhold or customaryhold lands, or any interest to which any bankrupt is entitled therein, and thereby to entitle or authorize any person or persons, on behalf of that court, to surrender the same for the purpose of any purchaser being admitted thereto (z). copyholds pound with fines. Every person, to whom any such conveyance of Vendees of copyhold or customary lands or tenements, or of any shall comsuch interest therein, shall be made, shall, before he the lord for enter into or take any profit of the same, agree and compound with the lords of the manors, of whom the same shall be holden, for such fines, dues and other services as theretofore have been usually paid for the same; and thereupon the said lords shall, at the next or any subsequent court to be holden for the said manors, grant unto such vendee, upon request, (x) Headlam's Trustee Act, 1850, p. 39, n. f. (y) Reg. v. Pitt, 10 Ad. & E. 272. (2) 12 & 13 Vict. c. 106, s. 209; see Wood v. Lambirth, 1 Phill. C. C. 8. Insolvents. the said copy or customary lands or tenements, for such estate or interest as shall have been so conveyed to him as aforesaid, reserving the ancient rents, customs and services, and shall admit him tenant of the same (a). On the sale of copyholds of an insolvent debtor a fine becomes payable on the admittance of the purchaser. The real estates of insolvent debtors are vested by an order of the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in the provisional assignee of such court without any conveyance (b). That court, after making such vesting order, may appoint assignee or assignees of the estate of the prisoner, in whom the estate vested in the provisional assignee will become vested without any conveyance (c). The assignee or assignees are directed to sell such estates; and in case such prisoner shall be entitled to any copyhold or customary estate, a certified copy of the vesting order, and a certified copy of the appointment of such assignee or assignees, is to be entered on the court rolls of the manor of which such copyhold or customary estate shall be holden; and thereupon such assignee or assignees may surrender or convey such copyhold or customary estate to any purchaser or purchasers of the same from such assignee or assignees, as the said court shall direct; and the rents and profits thereof shall be in the meantime received by such assignee or assignees for the benefit of the creditors of such prisoner, without prejudice nevertheless to the lord or lords of the manor of which any such copyhold or customary estate shall be holden (d). As a general rule it is clear that the legal estate in a copyhold cannot be passed without surrender; but the statutes relating to insolvents have effected a new mode of transfer, and has rendered a surrender necessary only in the case in which the assignee proposes to effect a sale (e). The provisions of the statute as to the entry of the appointment on the court rolls, where the insolvent is entitled to any copyhold estate, and to the sale of the estate of the insolvent with all convenient speed, point out the duties to be performed by the assignee as an officer of the court for the benefit of the creditors. These provisions are directory only, and it is not open to any third person to dispute the validity of the title of the assignee, on the ground that the steps so directed to be taken have been delayed or omitted (ƒ). SECT. II. OF HERIOTS. cluded in acts. The word "enfranchisement" in the Copyhold Act, Heriots in1841, extends to and includes the discharge of freehold copyhold lands from heriots and other manorial rights, and the word "heriots" includes money payments in lieu thereof (g). Under the Copyhold Act, 1852, heriots are to be included in the valuation, and due allowance is to be made for the same (h). The lord or tenant of manors in which heriots are by custom payable by tenants of freehold or customary lands holden of manors, may require and compel the extinguishment of all such claim to heriots, and the enfranchisement of (e) Doe d. Smith v. Glenfield, 1 Bing. N. C. 729; 1 Scott, 699. (f) Cole v. Coles, 6 Hare, 523; see Mather v. Priestman, 9 Sim. 352. (g) 4 & 5 Vict. c. 35, s. 102. (h) 15 & 16 Vict. c. 51, s. 16. Hardship and inconve nience of claims for heriots. Different kinds of heriots. the lands subject thereto, in the same way as if such lands were copyhold; and the same proceedings shall thereupon be had as are therein mentioned, with reference to the enfranchisement of copyhold lands, or as near thereto as the nature of the case will admit (k). The Real Property Commissioners observe, "Heriots are a reproach to the law of England, and must be considered as a remnant of that barbarous state of society which existed at their introduction by the Danes (1). When the tenant dies, his best beast, or best chattel, is to be seized by the lord, the lord being entitled to enter the house or land and appropriate to himself the object of his choice. In this case the benefit conferred by the right is not nearly equivalent to the prejudice done to those against whom it is exercised. It leads not only to ill will and strife between neighbours, but to constant fraud and evasion. To defeat the claim of the lord, the legal estate is placed in the name of a person whose residence will prevent the lord from exercising his right. When a yeoman is supposed to be in extremis his family sell his cattle at a sacrifice or drive them out of the manor. The steward, on the other hand, makes irregular entries on the roll, and procures irregular presentments by the homage, of heriots being due on the death of tenants, and of payment being excused or compromised, with a view to make evidence to extend the lord's claim on some future occasion (m).” Heriots are usually divided into two sorts, heriot (k) 15 & 16 Vict. c. 51, s. 27. (1) Sir E. Coke observes, that in the time of the Saxons, heriot signified nothing else but a tribute given to the lord for his better preparation for war, as a horse, &c.; and that as they now exist, they were utterly unknown until the Norman conquest, Co. Cop. s. 24; Tr. 23, 25. (m) 3 Real Prop. Rep. p. 19. service and heriot custom. The former are such as are due upon a special reservation in a grant or lease of lands within time of memory, and therefore amount to little more than a mere rent (n). The latter arise upon no special reservation whatsoever, but depend merely upon immemorial usage and custom; those due by custom are the most frequent, and are defined to be a customary tribute of goods and chattels payable to the lord of the fee on the decease of the owner of the land; this custom, like all others, is local and must be reasonable (o). Heriot service was originally an incident of tenure, but heriot custom is not an incident of tenure. The distinction between heriot service and heriot custom is this-as to heriot services they are the subject of distress, although heriot custom is not necessarily so (p). Heriot service is said to be where the tenant holds by such service, as to pay a heriot at his death, which service ought to be expressed in the deed itself, and for this heriot the lord may distrain or seize; that is, he may distrain any beast on the land, and may seize any beast of the tenant anywhere, but he cannot distrain for it out of the manor (q); and if he purchases part of the tenancy where a heriot service is to be payable, that service is extinguished, but it is not so if he purchase part of the tenancy out of which a heriot custom is to be paid (r). All entire services, such as to render an entire chattel, either of profit or pleasure, upon the death of the tenant, shall be multiplied by alienation of any part of the tenancy (s). (n) 2 Saund. 166. (o) 2 Bl. Comm. 423; Co. Cop. s. 24, Tr. 23-25; see 1 Scriv. Cop. 370-374, 4th ed. (P) Mayor of Basingstoke v. Ld. Bolton, 1 Drew. 291. G |