J 



68 History of the English Lajided Interest. 



practically covers all the intricacies of manorial customs and 

 tenures ; a laudable practice when we come to consider their 

 ramifications and diversities on every separate manor and in 

 a country where " ignorantia juris hand excusat." 



We have already pointed out that in the Court Leet the 

 steward was judge, but in the Court Baron the suitors occupied 

 this office, unless they all happened to be copyholders. The 

 steward in fact only became judge when the freehold was in 

 the lord, i.e. when all the suitors held base estates only in the 

 manor, ^ It was however as essential for the steward of the 

 Court Baron to be skilled in legal matters, as it was for the 

 steward of the Leet Court, so that there could be no excuse 

 for " reseising " a cause on account of some error of judgment. 



1 12 Hen. VII. fol. 17, 6 Ed. 43. 



