84 MANORS OF STRATTON AND GRIMSTON. 



Bracton and others, on the other hand, have derived the term 

 from the French manoir, a manor, according to them, denoting 

 the principal residence of the owner of his land. But the more 

 generally accepted definition of the term manor seems to be that 

 it comprehends messuages, lands, tenements, &c., and is the 

 district or compass of ground granted anciently by the kings of 

 this realm to their vassals, lords, or barons, with liberty to parcel 

 out the land to sub-vassals, and with power to hold a Court or 

 Courts possessing civil and also criminal jurisdiction ; and where 

 the greater vassals made their sub-grants the sub-grantees 

 became inferior lords, and the seignory of the superior lord, 

 called the lord paramount, was termed an "honour." These 

 mesne or middle lords, following the example of those above 

 them, granted out lesser estates until the superior lords began to 

 realise that they were losing their profits in respect of wardships, 

 marriages, escheats, &c. ; and in the i8th year of King Edward 

 the First the Statute Quia Emptores was passed, which enacted 

 that in all sales and enfeoffments of lands the feoffee should 

 hold the same, not of the immediate feoffer, but of the chief lord 

 of the fee, and the multiplication of manors by act of parties was 

 by such Statute forbidden. 



A manor usually consisted of and comprised the following 

 particulars : 



i. The Manor House with the demesne lands occupied 

 therewith. 



2. The freehold tenements holden of the manor. 



3. The copyhold tenements holden of the manor. 



4. The commons and waste lands of the manor with the soil 

 thereof and the mines and minerals therein and thereunder. 



5. The services which were to be rendered by the tenants of 

 the manor together, with the fines, fees, and heriots incident 

 thereto, the Court Baron or Customary Court with the view of 

 Frank-pledge or Court Leet, and not infrequently, an advowson 

 appendent to the manor. 



We will consider each of these interests separately and in 

 order. 



