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281

INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM.

Fon a complete elucidation of the following Records, a
strong temptation presents itself to reprint the fourth
and fifth chapters of book ii. of Blackstone’s Commen-
taries, wherein the entire history of ancient English te-
nures is most lucidly treated; but We must not occupy
our pages with information that is readily accessible to
all Who choose to interest themselves in our early con-
stitutional history. A few quotations with reference
to the different kinds of tenure, and specially that by
knight-service, will suffice for our present purpose, an
explanation, namely, of the origin and nature of the
Inquisitions which form the subject of this paper.

“Almost al.l the real property of this kingdom is by the
policy of our laws supposed to be granted by, dependent upon,
and ]Z.0l1.l(3% of some superior lord, by and in consideration of
certain services to be rendered to the lord by the tenant or
possessor of this property. The thing holden is therefore styled
a tenement, the possessors thereof tenants, and the manner of
their possession a tenure. Thus all the land in the kingdom
is supposed to be holden, mediately or immediately, of the
king; who is styled the lord paramount, or above all. Such
tenants as held under the king immediately, when they granted
out portions of their lands to inferior persons, became also
lords with respect to those inferior persons, just as they them-
selves were still tenants with respect to the king; and, thus
partaking of a middle nature, Were called meme, or middle,

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282 INQUISITIONES rosr MORTEM.

lords. So that if the king granted a manor to A, and he
granted a portion of the land to B, now B was said to hold of
A, and A of the king; or in other words, B held his lands im-
med-lately Of A; but niediately of the king. The king there-
fore was styled lord paramount; A was both tenant and lord,
or was a mesne lord ,- and B was called tenant pwrcwail, or the
lowest tenant; being he who was supposed to make avail, or
profit, of‘ the land.”

“All tenures being thus derived, or supposed to be derived,
from the king, those that held immediately under him, in right
of his crown and dignity, were called his tenants in capttc, or
in chief; which was the most honourable species of tenure,
but at the same subjected the tenants to greater and more
burdensome services than inferior tenures did. This distinc-
tion ran through all the different sorts of tenure; of which I
now proceed to give an account.

"‘ I, There seem to have subsisted among our ancestors four
principal species of lay tenures, to which all others may be
reduced: the grand criteria of which were the natures of the
several services or renders, that were due to the lords from
their tenants. The services, in respect of their gmtliltg/, were
either free or base services ; in respect of their qua/M-ity and
the time of exacting them, were either C9'i’ll(7L7i’IL or mzrcertomfit.
Free services were such as were not unbecoming the character
of a soldier or a freeman to perform ,- as, to serve under his
lord in the Wars, to pay a sum of money, and the like. Base
services were such as were fit only for peasants, or persons
of a servile rank; as to plough the lord’s land, to make his
hedges, or other mean employments. The ccrtcmin services,
Whether free or base, were such as were stinted in quantity,
and could not be exceeded on any pretence; as, to pay a
stated annual rent, or to plough such a field for three days.
The vmcertmi/n depended upon unknown contingenciesi as, to
do military service in person, or pay an assessment in lieu of
it, when called upon; or to Wind a horn Whenever the Scots
invaded the realm ; which are fl-cc services: or to do what-
ever the lord should command ,- which is a lictse or villeiii
service.

“Where the service was _j'rm;, but m/«wrz‘m'n, as military ser-
vice with homage, that tenure was called the tenure in chivalry,
[n r .w';'z*2'f2'1I7)z mi/1'¢‘«“(rr', or by lcniglit-.<ei'vicc. S(!c«’>ii<,ll_y_, where

_J_-‘

1.

INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM. 283

the service was not only free, but also certain, as by fealty only,
by rent and fealty, etc. , that tenure was called hbcrimt socagmm,
or free socage.

“The first, most universal, and esteemed the most honour-
able species of tenure, was that by knight-service, called in
Latin sermltium mvilitarre. . . . To make a tenure by knight—ser—
Vice, 2). determinate quantity of land was necessary, which was
called a knight’s-fee (fcodmn militarc) , the measure of which in
3 Edw. I. was estimated at twelve ploughlands, and its value
(though it varied with the times) in the reigns of Edw. I. and
Edw. II. was stated at £20 per annum. And he who held this
proportion of land (or a whole fee) by knight-service, was
bound to attend his lord to the wars for forty days in every
year, if called upon; which attendance was his 7'c«M'1',tu8 or
return, his rent or service, for the land he claimed to hold. 1f
he held only half a knight’s-fee, he was only bound to attend
twenty days, and so in proportion.”1*

There were also——

“ Seven fruits and consequences, as inseparably incident to
the tenure by knight—service, viz. 1, AIDS; 2, RELIEFS ,- 3,
PRIMER SEISIN; 4, WARDSHIP; 5, MARITAGIUM ; 6, FINES FOR
ALIENATION; and 7, ESCHEAT.”

To each and all of these the King had a claim from
tenants in capite, z'.e. from those who held immediately
from the Crown by knight-service?

1. By the first, “ AIDS,” the tenant was bound to ran-
som the Kings person, if taken prisoner; to provide the
costs of making his eldest son a knight; and to find a
portion for marrying his eldest daughter.

2. By the second, “ RELIEF,” the tenant had to pay a
fine, or “ Relief,” to the King, on the death of his an-
cestor, as a composition for taking up his estate; but
this was only demaiidablc if the heir was of full age at
the time of his succeeding to the estate, when he did

his fcaltv and homage to his lord; that is,» h" mok ml
oath to be faithful to his lord, and did homage by kneel-

 Tiic notes \\ ill be found at p. 313,- 01“

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284 INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM.

ing before him, ungirt, uncovered, and holding up his
hands both together between those of his lord, who sate
before him, and professing that he did become his “man,
from that day forth, of life and limb and earthly honour,”
and he then received a kiss from his lord. At first the
“ Relief” was an arbitrary payment, and at the will of
the lord, so that if he pleased to demand an exorbitant
Relief, it was, in effect, to disinherit the heir, and thus
it became. one of the greatest grievances of military
tenure. After Various struggles between the Crown and
its tenants, the composition was finally fixed at 1003. for
every knight’s-fee.

3. By the third, “ PRIMER Snisin,” the King had a
right, when any of his tenants by kniglit-service in
capite died, to receive of the heir (if of full age) one
year’s profits of the lands, if they were in possession;
and half a year’s profits if they were in reversion, ex-
pectant on an estate for life.

4. By the fourth, viz. “ VVARDSIIIP,” if the heir were
under age of twenty-one, being a male, or fourteen,
being a female, the King was entitled to the guardian-
ship, which consisted in having the custody of the body
and lands of such heir (without rendering any account
of the profits) till the age of twenty-one in males, and
sixteen in females.3 And when the heir thus came of
full age, provided he held a knight’s-fee in ca])2'z‘e under
the Crown, he was to receive the order-of knighthood,
and was compellable to take it upon him, or else pay a
fine to the King. On arriving at full age, the heir had
his Writ “ de aetate probanda.” A jury was summoned
to inquire into his age, returning their verdict on oath ;
on which, if proved of full age, he obtained livery and
seisin of his lands. Occasionally, frauds were attempted
on the Crown, by false representations of age, and rein-
vestigation became necessary. Among the Inquisitions
are frequently found the evidences used on these proofs

INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM. 285

of age,——an exceedingly interesting class of documents,
which we shall print in order as they occur.

5. And during the same period of nonage, the fifth
incident, viz. the right of MARRIAGE, “ maritagium,”3 ae-
crued to the King over his tenants. By this, while the
infant was in ward, he had the power of tendering him
or her a suitable match, without disparagement or in-
equality, which, if the infants refused, they forfeited to
him the value of the marriage, that is, so much as a jury
would assess, or any one would ban/z fide give for such
an alliance; and, if the infants married without his cori-
sent, they forfeited double the value.

6. The sixth incident was the “ FINE,” which the te-
nant was obliged to pay to the King upon every aliena-
tion of his land, which he could not effect without a
license from the Crown. If he did, it was in ancient
strictness an absolute forfeiture of the land. But this
severity was mitigated by the statute 1 Edw. III. cap. 12,
which ordained, that in such case the lands should not
be forfeited, but a reasonable fine be paid to the King.
It was also settled by the same statute that the Crown
should not demand more than one-third of the yearly
value for a license of alienation.

7. The last incident was “ EsCiII«:AT,” whereby, if the
tenant died without an heir, or convicted of treason or
felony, the estate 1‘OVC1'tC(l or “ esclieated ” to the Crown.

The description here given is that of knight-service
proper, which was to attend the king in his wars. There
was also another species of knight-service of a more ho-
nourable nature, but attended with the same fruits and
consequences. Such was the tenure by ‘ grand ser-
jeanty,’ per magmmt servztmivt, whereby the tenant was
bound, instead of serving the King ge72emZlg/ in lns wars,
to do him some special honorary service in person, such
as to carry his banner, his sword, or the like, or to be


286 INQUISITIONES POST M0‘RTEM;'.

his butler, champion, or other officer at his coronation;
only a tenant of this kind was not bound to pay aid or
escuage; and while the tenant by ordinary knight-service
paid five pounds for a “Relief” on each knight’s-fee,
the tenant by grand serjeanty paid one years value of
the land whether it was much or little.

“ These services, both of chivalry and grand serjeanty, were
all personal, and uncertain as to their quantity and duration.
But the personal attendance in knight’s-service growing trouble-
some and inconvenient in many respects, the tenants found
means of compounding for it ; by first sending others in their
stead, and in process of time making a pecuniary satisfaction
to the lord in lieu of it. This pecuniary satisfaction at last
came to be levied by assessments, at so much for every kni ght’ s-
fee, and therefore this kind of tenure was called .sv-ufzig2.'7mi,
scmum being then a Well known denomination for money.

“ By the degenerating of knight-service, or personal military
duty, into cscuage, or pecuniary assessments, all the advantages
(either promised or real) of the feodal constitution were de-
stroyed, and nothing but the hardships remained. lnstead of
forming a national militia composed of barons, knights, and
gentlemen, bound by their interest, their honour, and their
oaths, to defend their king and country, the whole of this sys-
tem of tenures now tended to nothing else but a wretched
means of raising money to pay an army of occasional mercena-
ries. In the meantime the families of all our nobility groaned
under the intolerable burdens, which (in consequence of the
fiction adopted after the Conquest) were introduced and laid
upon them by the subtlety and finesse of the Norman lawyers.
For, besides the scutages to which they were liable in defect of
personal attendance, which however were assessed by them-
selves in parliament, they might be called upon by the king or
lord paramount for a,2'r;Is, whenever his eldest son was t-o be
knighted or his eldest daughter married; not to forget the
ransom of his own person. The heir, on the death of his an-
cestor, if of full age, was plundered of the first emoluments
arising from his inheritance, by way of 'rcliqf and pr-inz.er selisi-it;
and, if under age, of the whole of his estate during infancy.
And then, as Sir Thomas Smith very feelingly complains,

 

- - «-u .3--an-u..‘

INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM. 287

‘ when he came to his own, after he was out of wardship, his
Woods decayed, houses fallen down, stock Wasted and gone,
lands let forth and ploughed to be barren,’ to reduce him still
further, he was yet to pay half a_ year-’s profits as a fine for
suing out his livery ; and also the price or value of his marriage,
if he refused such wife as his lord and guardian had bartered
for, and imposed upon him ; or twice that value if he married
another Woman. Add to this, the untimely and expensive
honour of 7cm'._r/htiiood, to make his poverty more completely
splendid. And when by these deductions his fortune was so
shattered and ruined, that perhaps he was obliged to sell his
patrimony, he had not even that poor privilege allowed him,
without paying an exorbitant fine for a license of aliearztioa.

“ A slavery so complicated, and so extensive as this, called
aloud for a remedy in a nation that boasted of its freedom.
Palliatives were from time to time applied by successive acts of
parliament, which assuaged some temporary grievances. Till
at length the humanity of King James I. consented, in con.-
sideration of a proper equivalent, to abolish them all; though
the plan proceeded not to effect.

“ At length the military tenures, with all their heavy appen-
dages (having during the usurpation been discontinued) were
destroyed at one blow by the statute 12 Car. II. c. 24L, which
enacts, ‘ that the court of wards and liveries, and all wardships,
live-ries, primer seisins, and ousterlemains, values and forfeitures
of marriages, by reason of any tenure of the king or others,
be totally taken away. And that all fines for alienations, te-
nures by homage, knight-service, and escuage, and also aids
for marrying the daughter or knighting the son, and all tenures
of the king 'i72.cr'¢pi1‘-c, be likewise taken away. And that all
sorts of tenures, held of the king or others, be turned into free
and common socage 5 save only tenures in frankalmoign, copy-
holds, and the honorary services (without the slavish part) of
grand serjeanty.’ A statute, which was a greater acquisition
to the civil property of this kingdom than even Ilfagzzrzr Ourm
itself : since that only pruned the luxurianees that had grown
out of the military tenures, and thereby preserved them in
vigour ; but the statute of King Charles extirpated the whole,
and demolished both root and branches.”

Thus far We have cited from Blackstone, somewhat


288 INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM.

copiously perhaps, but we have done so in order that
we may be spared hereafter the necessity of endless notes
and discussions during the progress of our transcripts.
Our readers too are thus furnished, at the onset, with a
running commentary’, elucidating nearly every question
that may arise during the examination of these Inqui-
sitions, as necessary to explain the Records before us;
for the rest, we would urge our readers, learned or un-
learned, to study carefully the fourth and fifth chapters
of the second book of Blackstone’s Commentaries, and
can promise them much enjoyment in the perusal of that
luminous writer’s history of the origin and nature of the
feudal system and its requirements, as specially exem-
plified in early English Tenures. The study too of these
chapters will enable them to appreciate correctly the
Records now presented to them.

In order to ensure to the Crown the rights which we
have enumerated, when a supposed tenant by knight-
service in capite died, “ Inquisitionos post Mortem” were
taken, by virtue of the Kings writ, directed to the sheriff
or escheator of the county or district in which the party
(lied, requiring the said officer to summon a jury to in-
quire—-if the deceased held in cctpiz‘/e—of what lands he
had died seized,—and by what services the same were
held,——who was the next heir,—and of what age he
was,—and to make their return upon oath and under seal,
in order that the King might ascertain his rights of
wardship, marriage, etc., and take the lands into his
own hands during the minority of the heir, or perma-
nently if the estate had actually escheated.

These writs and the returns to them,4 made by the
escheator and his jury, are preserved among the public
records of the kingdom, from the early part of the reign
of llenry III. There are, as might be expected, many

-y,.——..—.;

INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM. 289

that period till the abolition of the Courts of Wards
and Liveries by Charles II., when all tenures by knight-
service, and of the King in capite, were abolished.

The great importance of these records to ordinary
county history has long been acknowledged. In the
descents of family and property, they are the best evi-
dence that can be produced, and nearly the only one on
which we can thoroughly rely. Moreover, if the tenant
was convicted of treason or felony, it appears on these
Records, which often furnish an actual “ extent ” or
survey of the manors and lands held by the tenant, with
their quality and measurement and value, recorded in full
detail. Many obsolete customs too are here recorded.
But, to this county, it is impossible to overrate their Value.
To us they are not merely interesting items in archaeolo-
gical research, but they are the indispensable evidences,
in many instances the only title, which some of us have
to our property. Herein are specified what particular
estates are held by the custom of Gavelkind, and which
are exempt therefrom.

Many an estate has been partitioned among coheirs,
on an intestacy, to which the younger brothers had no
more right than an utter alien in blood, and the elder
son has thus been unconsciously robbed of his inheri-
tance, merely from ignorance of the fact which these
Records would have developed, that his estate was ori-
ginally held by knight-service, and therefore exempt
from the operation of Gavelkind. Within the last four
years the writer of these lines has himself rescued two
important estates from being lost to the older son, by
the evidence supplied from these very documents which
we here purpose to print, in regular series, for the use of
our county. In the instance of “ Pedes Finium,” we have
printed the Record entire in the original Latin, because

a short heading in English sufiices, in those Records, to
give the whole substance of the document ; but in these
VOL. 11. 17

deficiencies, especially in the more early periods; but,
with these exceptions, a series of them 1S preserved from

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290 INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM.

Inquisitions, which contain minute details of every par-
ticular attaching to the estate in question, no abstract
would suffice. In these therefore, for the convenience
of the general reader, we have rendered into English all
the items of the Record. It will enable him to trace
the descent of families and property from a very early
period; and ever and anon, in cases of intestacy, the
heir, in this county, will here find a clue to save himself
from the distribution of his estate among younger bro-
thers, securing thereby, in almost every instance, a result
for which the father, had he made a Will, would most
probably have provided.

The English translation will suffice for general pur-
poses; in every instance We have given the reference to
the original Record, so that, in those cases where legal
evidence is required, the party needing it can always
obtain by this reference a verbatim copy of the original,
which will be undeniable evidence in all the Courts of
Law in the kingdom.

Literary friends in whose counsel We have great confi-
dence, have, we are free to confess, advised the non-ad-
mission of these Records, and the “ Pedes Finium,” into
our Volume ; but we have so strong a conviction of their
conferring something of mucl1 higher benefit to our
Members than mere archaeological information (which,
by the way, is of itself, in these instances, exceedingly in-
teresting), that we have resisted their counsel, and printed
them. It rests with our Members to decide whether they
approve the step or no. If any strong intimation be given
(which We can hardly anticipate) that they are not accept-
able, they shall be discontinued. As we descend to the
fifteentli and sixteenth centuries, We have in these ln-
quisitions the most minute particulars, (very often even
descending to actual fields,) of the manors and estates of
deceased tenants in capite; and, after a study of these
Records, through their course as it proceeds, the reader

 

. . ‘/9,,,,.,,..m.,=4onL.a-.ua,...,;:."*-a...-. ,. 

INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM. 291

will find himself as conversant with the early history of
the lands in his parish, as he is of the farms around
him in the present day. Connected with the “ Pedes
Finium," he Will trace them through all their aliena-
tions, and map them out as readily as though he had
lived in the times whose changes they record.

We have given, at page 298, a facsimile of one of the
earliest writs, and the return of the Inquisition to it,
viz. that of William le Taillur, relating to his estate in
Milton, etc. ; it is a fair sample of the earliest of these
Inquisitions. VVe have selected it, as an instance where
the Jury, in their return, carefully distinguish between
the lands held in Gavelkind, divisible among all the
brothers, and those held by knight’s-service, not so divi-
sible. Having now made our readers acquainted with
the nature and history of these Records, we proceed to
print them in regular series.

But we must first render our cordial acknowledgments
to our old and valued friend, Thomas Duffus Hardy, Esq.,
and the officers presiding over the different departments
of the General Record Office, for their unremittingly
kind attentions. To that gentleman, and to the Rev. J.
Hunter, H. J. Sharpe, Esq., the Rev. Professor Brewer,
VV. Nelson, Esq., J. J. Bond, Esq., C. Cole, Esq., J. Burtt,
Esq, and VV. B. Sanders, Esq, we cannot be sufliciently
grateful for the valuable assistance rendered to us in pre-
paring for publication the Records which we have used
in this and our former volume; and we cannot refrain
from adding our testimony to the great efficiency of the
office, and to the uniform courtesy and attention rendered
to those literary students who have occasion to consult
the Public Records.

The earliest Inquisition for the county of Kent is that
relating to the rents of the Prior of MODINDEN, as
folloWs5:———