r6o On the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



" majoribus natu conjidentibus " And many examples of a like 

 nature might be quoted *. 



IT will naturally occur, that the opinion of a qualification 

 in landed property having been necefTary to confer a feat in 

 .the wittenagemot, is adverfe to the conclufion which is meant 

 to be iuggefled by the above obfervations. But it is to be re- 

 marked, that what Dr HENRY has laid down on this fubjedt as a 

 matter of certainty, was offered by Mr HUME merely as a con- 

 jecture. The only foundation, as far as I know, for this doctrine 

 is a paflage in the Hiftoria Elienfis f, where mention is made of 

 land being alienated from a convent, in order to make up aa 

 eftate of4o hides for a friend of the abbot, that he might be reckon- 

 ed among the nobles, " proceres." We know, that more anciently 

 a king's thane muft have had five hides of land, a chapel and a 

 hall. Hence, as Mr HUME fuppofed, the great proprietors of 

 land, or king's thanes, were the wites, he conjectured reafonably 

 enough from the above paflage, that, in later times, the quali- 

 fication of a wite had been advanced to 40 hides J. It is ma- 

 nifeft, however, that, till it is proved that the thanes were fena- 

 tores Anglias, a doctrine which, by the by, would render the 

 fenate too numerous for deliberation, there is no evidence what- 

 ever, that a qualification in land had any connection in law 

 with the wittenagemot, farther than that we may conjecture, 

 that proprietors who held lands free from fervile conditions 

 .alone would be efteemed companions in arms for each other, 



and 



* " GLORIOSUS .rex OFFA cum fenatoribus terrge, iffc, Hac decreta fenatoribus et' 

 " ducibus et populo terras propofuimus." SPELMAN'S Councils. A charter of EDWARD 

 the Confeflbr runs thus : " EDWARDDS R. Salutem dicit HERMANNO epifcopo, HAROLDO 

 " comiti, et omnibus fuis agri Dorfetenjts mini/iris." HODT, p. 64. 



\ Lib. 2. cap. 40. 



\ IT is remarked in Doomfday, that a thane who had more than fix manors in Not- 

 tingamftiire, paid 8 pounds relief to the king ; but, if he had fix or fewer manors, .he 

 paid 3 merks to the fieri/, whether he lived in burgo or extra. 



