in Law. The folk-land or estates held in villenage, was a species of tenure neither strictly feudal, Norman, or Saxon; but mixed and compounded of them all; and which also, on account of the heriots Villens that usually attend it, may seem to have somewhat Danish in its composition. Under the Saxon government there were, as Sir William Temple speaks, a sort of people in a condition of downright servitude, used and employed in the most servile works, and belonging, both they, their children, and effects, to the lord of the soil, like the rest of the cattle or stock upon it. These seem to have been those who held what was called the folk-land, from which they were removable at the lord's pleasure. On the arrival of the Normans here, it seems not improbable, that they who were strangers to any other in a feudal state, might give some sparks of enfranchisement to such wretched persons as fell to their share, by admitting them, as well as others, to the oath of fealty; which conferred a right of protection, and raised the tenant to a kind of estate superior to downright slavery, but inferior to every other condition. This they called villenage, and the tenants villeins.

These villeins, belonging principally to lords of manors, were either villeins regardant, that is, annexed to the manor or land: or else they were in gross, or at large, that is, annexed to the person of the lord, and transferable by deed from one owner to another. They could not leave their lord without his permission; but if they ran away, or were purloined from him, might be claimed and recovered by action, like beasts or other chattels. They held indeed small portions of land by way of sustaining themselves and families: but it was at the mere will of the lord, who might dispossess them whenever he pleased; and it was upon villein services, that is, to carry out dung, to hedge and ditch the lord's demesnes, and any other the meanest offices: and their services were not only safe, but uncertain both as to their time and quantity.

A villein could acquire no property either in lands or goods: if he purchased either, the lord might seize them to his own use; unless he contrived to dispose of them again before the lord had seized them, for the lord had then lost his opportunity.

In many places a fine was also payable to the lord, if the villein presumed to marry his daughter to any one without leave from the lord: and by the common law, the lord might also bring an action against the husband for damages in thus purloining his property. For the children of villeins were also in the same state of bondage with their parents; whence they were called in Latin natiivi, which gave rise to the female appellation of a villein, who was called a neife. In case of a marriage between a freeman and a neife, or a villein and a freewoman, the issue followed the condition of the father, being free if he was free, and a villein if he was villein, contrary to the maxim of the civil law, that partus sequitur ventrem. But no bastard could be born a villein, because by another maxim of our law he is nullius filius; and as he can gain nothing by inheritance, it were hard that he should lose his natural freedom by it. The law, however, protected the persons of villeins against atrocious injuries of the lord: for he might not kill or maim his villein; though he might beat him with impunity.

Villeins might be enfranchised by manumission. In process of time they gained considerable ground on their lords; and in particular strengthened the tenure of their estates to that degree, that they came to have in them an interest in many places full as good, in others better than village, than their lords. For the good nature and benevolence of many lords of manors having, time out of mind, permitted their villeins and their children to enjoy their possessions without interruption, in a regular course of descent, the common law, of which custom is the life, now gave them title to prescribe against their lords; and, on performance of the same services, to hold their lands in spite of any determination of the lord's will. For though in general they are still said to hold their estates at the will of the lord, yet it is such a will as is agreeable to the custom of the manor; which customs are preserved and evidenced by the rolls of the several courts-baron in which they are entered, or kept on foot by the constant immemorial usage of the several manors in which the lands lie. And as such tenants had nothing to show for their estates but those customs, and admissions in pursuance of them, entered on these rolls, or the copies of such entries witnessed by the steward, they now began to be called tenants by copy of court-roll, and their tenure itself a copyhold.

Privileged VILLENAGE, a species of tenure otherwise called villen-in-locage. See TENURE.

Ancient demesne consists of those lands or manors which, though now perhaps granted out to private subjects, were actually in the hands of the crown in the time of Edward the Confessor, or William the Conqueror; and so appear to have been, by the great survey in the exchequer, called the doomsday-book. The tenants of these lands, under the crown, were not all of the same order or degree. Some of them, as Britton testifies, continued for a long time pure and absolute villeins, dependent on the will of the lord; and common copyholders in only a few points. Others were in a great measure enfranchised by the royal favour; being only bound in respect of their lands to perform some of the better sort of villein-services, but those determinate and certain; as, to plough the king's land for so many days, to supply his court with such a quantity of provisions, and the like; all of which are now changed into pecuniary rents; and in consideration hereof they had many immunities and privileges granted to them; as, to try the right of their property in a peculiar court of their own, called a court of ancient demesne, by a peculiar process denominated a writ of right close; not to pay toll or taxes; not to contribute to the expenses of knights of the thire; not to be put on juries, and the like.

These tenants therefore, though their tenure be absolutely copyhold, yet have an interest equivalent to a freehold: for though their services were of a base and villainous original, yet the tenants were esteemed in all other respects to be highly privileged villeins; and especially for that their services were fixed and determinate, and that they could not be compelled (like pure villeins) to relinquish those tenements at the lord's will, or to hold them against their own: et ideo (says Bracton) dicuntur liberi.

Lands holding by this tenure are therefore a species of copyhold, and as such preserved and exempted from the operation of the statute of Charles II. Yet they differ from common copyholds, principally in the privileges before mentioned: as also they differ from freeholders by one especial mark and tincture of villenage, noted by Bracton, and remaining to this day; viz. that they cannot be conveyed from man to man by the general common-law conveyances of feoffment, and the rest; but must pass by surrender to the lord or his steward, in the manner of common copyholds: yet with the difference, that, in the surrenders of these lands in ancient demesne, it is not used to say, "to hold at the will of their lord," in their copies; but only, "to hold according to the custom of the manor."