or Tenure in Burgage, is where the king, or other person, is lord of an ancient borough, in which the tenements are held by a rent certain. It is indeed only a kind of town faggot; as common faggot, by which other lands are holden, is usually of a rural nature. A borough is distinguished from other towns by the right of sending members to parliament; and where the right of election is by burgage-tenure, that alone is a proof of the antiquity of the borough. Tenure in burgage, therefore, or burgage-tenure, is where houses or lands which were formerly the site of houses in an ancient borough, are held of some lord in common faggot, by a certain established rent. And these seem to have withstood the shock of the Norman encroachments principally on account of their insignificance, which made it not worth while to compel them to an alteration of tenure, as 100 of them put together would scarce have amounted to a knight's fee. Besides, the owners of them, being chiefly artificers, and persons engaged in trade, could not with any tolerable propriety be put on such a military establishment as the tenure in chivalry was. The free faggot, therefore, in which these tenements are held, seems to be plainly a remnant of Saxon liberty; which may also account for the great variety of customs affecting many of these tenements so held in ancient burgage; the principal and most remarkable of which is that called Borough-English. See the article Borough-English.