VI OF THE SMALL LANDOWNER 127 



It seems very clear to me that in all these cases some 

 injury has been done to the tenants. In the case of the 

 copyholders at least, they would I believe in earlier days 

 have been protected by the custom of the manor, a custom 

 which, it should be remembered, would have been inter- 

 preted by their fellows who were suitors to the court, and 

 probably interpreted in their favour. 1 



1 'They were very common in Wiltshire where they are called 

 Bastard copyholds. But of late landlords have refused to renew.' 



In the manor of Gamlinguy, Merton College turned a copyhold for 

 lives into a lease for years in 1756, in 1832 the College refused to 

 renew; in the manor of Cuxham the College has lately refused to 

 renew two out of five copyholds for lives ; in the three other manors 

 the College in 1889 refused to renew fourteen copyholds for years, 

 cf. Merton College Index to Kegister Copyholds. 



Magdalen and Corpus Christi Colleges have pursued a like policy. 



We find cases of copyholds for lives being turned into leaseholds for 

 lives on the priory lands in Durham, and in the seventeenth century 

 a refusal of the Dean and Chapter to renew ; cf. Victoria County 

 Hist. : Durham, vol. ii, pp. 228, 230. 



Lawrence in his Duty of a Steward (1727) advises lords to substitute 

 leaseholds for lives for copyholds for lives, no doubt with the object 

 of subsequently refusing to renew, p. 59. 



