T E N 



a fine paid at the time of tl.e grant, and alfo a referved rent 

 durintr the coiitimiaiu-o ot tlie leale. , r • i • jr 



TIrti- are three different kinds of ci)urcli-leale in this dil- 

 tria ; as demifes to tenants for tlie longcil of tliree lives ; 

 the eonfiderations being money and referved rents ; demifes 

 to manorial tenants for three lives in the fame way ; the 

 takers having the liberty, during the whole time, to under- 

 leafe to other tenants in the manner of copyholds for three 

 lives ; and grants of leafes for twenty-one years abfolute, 



ving fre(h leafes at the end of every feven 



g" 



TEN 



more injurious and extenfive tlian is generally apprehended* 

 The fame capital employed in the purehale of a leafe for 

 ninety-nine years, determinable on three lives, applied to the 

 (locking, cultivating, and improving a more extenfive occu- 

 pation held at a fair annual rent, and under an encouraging 

 term of years, mull, it is fuppofed, produce, in the contem- 

 plation of fuch property, very different emotions in the mind 

 of the owner : to the occupier the refults are infinitely more 

 advantageous ; and to the public at large, a more abundant 

 fupply is produced than can poflibly be derived from a capi- 

 tal employed in the purchafe of a more narrow occupation 

 on an eventually undifturbed poflefhon of ninety-nine years. 

 But notwithftanding, an opinion prevails with fome noblemen 

 and others in this county, that it is better to realize at forty 

 years' purchafe, than to fuffer the lifehold tenures to fall in 

 without renewal. Fortunately for the future improvement 

 and profperity of the county, the writer fays, this fpecies of 

 tenure is become much leffened within the laft twenty years. 

 In order to accomplilh this prepofterous objeft of the tenant's 

 indojence and pride, it is obferved, he will employ his kft (hil- 

 ling, and incur very heavy obligations among his friends and 

 neighbours, to pay eighteen years' purchafe for a leafe only 

 of that very farm, the fee of which might readily have been 

 bought for about one -third more. Deftitute of capital, and 

 encumbered with obligations contrafted with his family and 

 friends, the farmer enters his new occupation, depending 

 upon cafual and agiftment ftock for the confumption of his 

 pafture herbage. Having httle or no referved rent to pro- 

 vide for, the efforts of himfelf and family are direfted to the 

 annual cultivation of fo much of his land as will pay the 

 parochial and other fmall difburfements, and fupply the bare 

 wants of the mod comfortlefs life it is poflible to conceive, 

 leaving no brighter profpedls to his offspring, than what the 

 lapfe of ninety-nine years may do, by terminating a leafe fo 

 injudicioully purchafed. The fame is the cafe with thefe forts 

 of tenures in many other diflrifts of the kingdom. 



There is a great number of tenures bt fides tlie above 

 forts hi the midland and more northern counties, fome of 

 which are very curious and fmgular. Tenures under the 

 crown are likewife met with in thefe as well as mod other 

 parts of the kingdom. 



In that part of the country ufually denominated Scotland, 

 the tenures by which lands are principally held may be 

 clalTed and confidered as thofe of fuperiority, property, and 

 tack ; the firll of which i» merely nominal, and goes no far- 

 ther than that of conferring the right of franchife ; the 

 fecond is a valuable tenure of land, as yielding and implying 

 tlie full ufe and command of it to the fubjeft for all the 

 purpofes of human life, excepting merely political power, 

 which is attached as above, and may or may not be attached 

 to the property ; and the lafl is tlie tenure for a term of years, 

 by which proieffional farmers hold land from proprietors for 

 the purpofes of agriculture. The origin of thefe forts of 

 tenures, which feem to have been of a military or feudal na- 

 ture, is more fully explained in Finlater's Agricultural 

 Survey of the County of Peebles, to which the inquirer on 

 this fubjeft is referred. 



Tenure, Tenurii, in Law, the manner or condition in 

 which a tenant holds lands or tenements of his lord ; or the 

 fervices performed to the lord, in confideration of the ufe and 

 occupancy of his lands. 



The kinds of fervicc, and confequently of ten-ures, are 

 almoft inlinite. See Sehvice. 



Thofe for lands held of the king are either great, or petty 



which is a re- 

 nevral of the firft. Thefe are firft made in confideration of 

 fines and referved rents, but in the renewals fines only. 



In the fame diftrift, it has been much the cuftom, in 

 refpeft to the tenure of tenants, to grant leafes tor lives, 

 for the term of ninety-nine years, detenninable on the 

 death of the longeft liTer of three hves, to be named by the 

 taker. On the death of one of the lives named in the leafe, 

 it was ufual for the landlords to confcnt to the adding a new 

 life to the two which remained. The confideration in the 

 primary grant was uniformly a fine in hand of from fourteen 

 to eighteen years rent of the landed eftate, with a fmall 

 referved rent, and fuit and fervice to the manor court ; the 

 renewal commonly a fine only of three years' rent for one 

 life, or feven for two lives, without any alteration of the 

 other rent. 



A large proportion of the lands here are now held by the 

 tenantry under thefe leafes or tenures, but it muft be noticed, 

 that the number of new grants, or the renewal of old ones, 

 is on the decreafe ; and feldom takes place, unlefs under par- 

 ticular circumftances and motives. 



The holders under thefe leafes or tenures, which are called 

 leafeholds or fine-leafes, are conftantly fubjefted to all 

 taxes and repairs of every kind, excepting that a fmall pro- 

 portion of the land-tax in fome manors is repaid the tenant, 

 as the land-tax of the referved rent. Under the property- 

 tax, they were rated both as proprietor and occupier, except 

 only that the landlord was liable to the property-tax for his 

 referved rent. 



It admits of fome doubt whether this mode of leafing or 

 holding property be more detrimental to the lord, the tenant, 

 or the public in general ; but it is certainly a very injudicious 

 and unwife method of proceeding, as it is highly injurious 

 to the agriculture of the county, though at firft fight the 

 fecurity and great length of the leafes might be fuppofed to 

 have the contrary effeft. It is found, however, in praftice, 

 that the circumftance of moft of the holders under thefe 

 leafes having not only exhaufted in their purchafe and re- 

 newal the whole of their capitals, but often confiderably 

 more raifed on them with great difadvantage, counterafts 

 every good that might olhcrwiie have been expefted. It 

 is afTerted that, in common, cultivators of this fort, from the 

 want of capital and other means, as well as the fpeculative 

 nature of aU fuch tenures, are neceffarily feeble and fpirit- 

 lefs, and that they live worfe, work harder, and are more 

 inconvenienced, than any other kind of holders of land. And 

 that where the landlords do not renew, they are frequently 

 fufferers from the dilapidated and exhaufled ftate of the 

 premifes. 



It is aUb remarked by Mr. Vancouver, in his Account of 

 the Agriculture of the County of Devon, in regard to thefe 

 kinds of life-leafe tenures, that the mifchievous confequences 

 infeparably connefled with, and refulting from, the want of 

 agricultural knowledge in thofe who have the direftion and 

 management of fuch cftates, and who, to cover the want of 

 the necc/fary qualifications of a land agent, moft commonly /emanly, in capite, knight' s fervice. Sec. 



Thofe held of the lords were very various, hnfe, p-anif See 



advife the proprietors to grant thofe life-hold tenures fo 

 frequently heard of in this county and South Wales, are 



by homage, facade, &c. See Base, Frank, &c. 



The 



