a term of English law, describing the nature of the tenure by which certain property is held. In the early period of English history the greater barons, who held extensive domains under the crown, frequently granted smaller manors to inferior persons, to be held of themselves. The superior lord in these cases is called the lord paramount over all the manors; but, in imitation of the greater barons, the inferior lords began to grant to their villeins (the inhabitants of the villages, so named from villa) still smaller portions of land. This was a species of tenure neither strictly feudal, Norman, nor Saxon, but a compound of them all. Under the Saxon government a great part of the rustic population were held in servitude—they, their children, and effects, belonging to the lord of the soil, like the cattle and rest of the stock upon it. It is probable that the Normans, who were regulated entirely by the feudal law, might introduce some slight relaxation of the bondage in which they were held; but though the villeins were raised above absolute slavery, they were still retained in a condition inferior to every other. The small portions of land which they held for the sustenance of themselves and their families were granted on the condition of their performing the lowest services to their superior, who might dispossess them whenever he pleased.

From so disadvantageous a condition as this, it is not a little surprising that the peasantry of England should ever have emerged; but through various causes the services of villeinage were gradually rendered less onerous and uncertain, and at length were generally commuted for a small pecuniary quit-rent. In the time of Edward I. we find the tenants in some manors bound only to stated services, as recorded in the lord's book: by and by they acquired the right to be entered in the court-roll of the lord of the manor upon the same terms as their predecessors; and eventually they were allowed to get copies of the terms on which the land was held. Proofs of this remarkable transformation from tenants in villeinage to copyholders are found in the reign of Henry III.; and in the year-book of the 42d Edward III. it is said to be "admitted for clear law, that if the customary tenant or copyholder does not perform his services, the lord may seize his land as forfeited;" from which it is implied, that as long as the copyholder continued to perform the stipulations of his tenure, the lord was not at liberty to divest him of his estate.

Though in general they were still said to hold their estates at the will of their lord, yet that will must be in conformity with the customs of the manor, as preserved in the rolls of the several barons' courts in which they are entered, or agreeable to the constant and immemorial usage of the manors in which the lands lie. And as such tenants had nothing to show for their estates but these customs, and admissions in pursuance of them entered on those rolls, or the copies of such entries witnessed by the steward, they came to be called tenants by copy of court-roll, and their tenure itself a copyhold. Thus, according to Blackstone, two conditions are essential to copyhold tenure,—1st, "that the lands be parcel of, and situate within, the manor in..." In some manors where the custom has been to permit the heir to succeed the ancestor in his tenure, the estates are styled "copyholds of inheritance;" in others, where the lords have been more vigilant to preserve their rights, they remain copyholds for life only; for though the tenure is nominally by the will of the lord, in both cases it is regulated by the custom of the manor, as testified in the roll of the barons' court.

The burdens upon copyholds are fealty services (as well in rents as otherwise), reliefs, and escheats. The two latter belong only to copyhold of inheritance; the former to those for life also. Besides these, copyholds are also subject to wardship, fines, and heriots; which last is a custom derived from the Danes, and gave the lord the right to demand the best beast or other article of his tenant's personal property on his death. Of fines, some are due on the death of each tenant, others on the alienation of land: they are sometimes arbitrary, at the will of the lord; but the law has provided that in no case they shall exceed two years' value of the property.

So great were the inconveniences and vexations affecting copyhold property, that the legislature was at length induced to interfere, with the view of rendering the tenure more simple and fixed.

Heriots form one of those vexatious incidents affecting copyhold tenure which are apt to create a feeling of irritation. The most valuable picture may be seized as a chattel heriot, in respect of a copyhold tenement not worth £10; and in the case of live heriots, race-horses, and other valuable animals, may be seized under like circumstances. Instances of the full exercise of such rights though rare, are not unknown.—The more substantial evils of the copyhold tenure consist in uncertain fines, which drive capital from improvements, and in rights to timber, and a control over buildings. To remove these evils the act 4th and 6th Vict., cap. 35, was passed in 1841, "For the commutation of manorial rights in respect of lands of copyhold and customary tenure, and in respect of other lands subject to such rights, and for facilitating the enfranchisement of such lands, and for the improvement of such tenure."

By this act commissioners were appointed for the purpose of arbitrating between the lords of manors and copyholders, who might be desirous of commuting the uncertain rights for fixed terms of tenure.

The act provides that the lord of the manor, or any ten copyholders on the manor, or one-half of the copyholders should their number be less than ten, may call a meeting to agree upon terms of commutation. These may be payment of an annual sum as rent charge, and a small fixed fine upon death, which in no case should exceed 6s.; and after confirmation of agreement of commutation, lands to be discharged from rents, fines, and heriots, now payable, and from the lord's right of timber, and a fixed rent to be charged. Lands thus enfranchised become equal to freehold.

Two other acts were passed to amend and explain this statute; viz. 5th and 7th Vict., cap. 23, and 7th and 8th Vict., cap. 35.

After six years' experience the commissioners reported that, although there had been a slow and gradual advance in the voluntary enfranchisement of copyholds under ecclesiastical lords, leading to the expectation that the whole of the copyholds under their control would in time disappear, it was very different with the lay lords, very few of whom had effected enfranchisements; and suggested that some more effectual measures be adopted, such as either empowering each individual tenant to call on the commissioners to commute his uncertain payments, and to assign the lord a consideration, or enjoining the commission to take the manors of England seriatim, and completely commute all the uncertain incidents in each by turns. This last the commissioners say "would be a more rapid operation no doubt; but then it would be rougher and less practicably and immediately useful." By the Extension Act, 15th and 16th Vict., cap. 51, it was provided (with certain exceptions) that, after the next admittance to any land which shall take place after the 1st July next, either lord or tenant may compel an enfranchisement; and since that time the number of enfranchisements has greatly increased.