FRANCHISE, in Law. Franchise and liberty are used as synonymous terms; and their definition is, "a royal privilege, or branch of the king's prerogative, substituting in the hands of a subject." Being therefore derived from the crown, they must arise from the king's grant; or in some cases may be held by prescription, which, as has been frequently said, presupposes a grant. The kinds of them are various, and almost infinite. We shall here briefly touch upon some of the principal, premising only, that they may be vested in either natural persons or bodies politic; in one man, or in many; but the same identical franchise, that has before been granted to one, cannot be bestowed on another, for that would prejudice the former grant.
To be a county palatine, is a franchise vested in a number of persons. It is likewise a franchise for a number of persons to be incorporated and subfit as a body politic; with a power to maintain perpetual succession, and do other corporate acts: and each individual member of such corporation is also said to have a franchise or freedom. Other franchises are, to hold a court leet; to have a manor or lordship; or, at least, to have a lordship paramount: to have waifs, wrecks, estrays, treasure-trove, royal fish, forfeitures, and deodands: to have a court of one's own, or liberty of holding pleas and trying causes: to have the cognizance of pleas; which is still a greater liberty, being an exclusive right, so that no other court shall try causes arising within that jurisdiction: to have a bailiwick, or liberty exempt from the sheriff of the county; wherein the grantee only, and his officers, are to execute all process: to have a fair or market; with the right of taking toll, either there or at any other public places, as at bridges, wharfs, or the like; which tolls must have a reasonable cause of commencement (as in consideration of repairs, or the like), else
the franchise is illegal and void: or lastly, to have a forest, chafe, park, warren, or fishery, endowed with privileges of royalty. See CHASE, FOREST, &c.