274 



LOW S CASE OF TENURES. 



14 H. 6. f. 12. 



Merefeild s 

 case. 



33 H. 6. f. 7. For the third branch, if the king limit land to be dis 

 charged of tenure, as absque aliquo inde reddendo, this is a 

 tenure in capite ; and yet if one should go to the next, ad 

 proximum, it should be a soccage, for the least is next to 

 none at all ; but you may not take the king s grant by argu 

 ment; but where they cannot take place effectually and 

 punctually, as they are expressed, there you shall resort 

 wholly to the judgment of the law. 



So if the king grant land tenend sifrankment come il en 

 son corone, this is a tenure in capite. 



If land be given to be held of a lordship not capable, as 

 of Salisbury Plain, or a corporation not in esse, or of the 

 manor of a subject, this is a tenure in capite. 



So if land be given to hold by impossible service, as by 

 performing the office of the sheriff of Yorkshire, which no 

 man can do but the sheriff, and fealty for all service, this is 

 a tenure in capite. 



For the fourth branch, which cometh nearest to our case ; 

 let us see where a seigniory was once, and is after extin 

 guished ; this may be in two manners, by release in fact, 

 or by unity of profession, which is a release or discharge in 

 law. 



Vide 30 H. 8. And therefore let the case be, that the king releaseth to 



Dyer 8. H. 7. hi s tenant that holds of him in soccage ; this release is 

 good, and the tenant shall now hold in capite, for the 

 former tenure being discharged, the tenure in law ariseth. 



i E. 3. f. 4. fine So the case, which is in 1 E. III. a fine is levied to J. S. 



accept. in tail, the remainder ouster to the king, the state tail shall 



be held in capite, and the first tenancy, if it were in soccage, 

 by the unity of the tenancy, shall be discharged, and a 

 new raised thereupon : and therefore the opinion, or rather 

 the query in Dyer no law. 



Thus much for my major proposition : now for the minor, 

 or the assumption, it is this : first, that the land in ques 

 tion is discharged of tenure by the purchase of the manor ; 

 then that the reservation of the service upon the manor 

 cannot possibly inure to the tenancy ; and then if a cor 

 ruption be of the first tenure, and no generation of the 

 new, then cometh in the tenure per norman legis, which is 

 in capite. 



And the course of my proof shall be ab enumeratione 

 partium, which is one of the clearest and most forcible 

 kinds of argument. 



If this parcel of land be held by fealty and rent tantum, 

 either it is the old fealty before the purchase of the manor, 



4 et. 5. P. M. 



