law, a person who has the charge of any thing; but more commonly it signifies one who has the custody and education of such persons as have not sufficient discretion to take care of themselves and their own affairs, as children and idiots.

Their business is to take the profits of the minor’s lands to his use, and to account for the same: they ought to sell all moveables within a reasonable time, and to convert them into land or money, except the minor is near of age, and may want such things himself; and they are to pay interest for the money in their hands, that might have been so placed out; in which case it will be presumed that the guardians made use of it themselves. They are to sustain the lands of the heir, without making destruction of any thing thereon, and to keep it safely for him: if they commit waste on the lands, it is a forfeiture of the guardianship, 3 Edw. I. And where persons, as guardians, hold over any land, without the consent of the person who is next intitled, they shall be adjudged trespassers, and shall be accountable; 6 Ann. cap. xviii.

Warden, of the Cinque-ports, is an officer who has the jurisdiction of the cinque-ports, with all the power that the admiral of England has in other places.

Camden relates, that the Romans, after they had settled themselves and their empire in our island, appointed a magistrate, or governor, over the east parts, where the Cinque-ports lie, with the title of comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam; having another, who bore the like title, on the opposite side of the sea. Their business was to strengthen the sea-coast with munition, against the outrages and robberies of the barbarians; and that antiquary takes our warden of the Cinque-ports to have been erected in imitation thereof. The wardenship is a place of value, supposed worth L. 7000 per annum.