Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-27
OLD MANOR COURTS
REMAINS OF HISTORIC GRANTS
TO EARLY MARYLANDERs.

Manors of Maryland was the subject of
the lecture given last night by Mrs. Anne
Leakin Sioussat. chairman of the national
committee on historic research. Colonial
Danes of America. The lecture was in
the Maryland field studies course. Mrs.
Sioussat said:
The reproduction in the province of
Maryland of institutions which had arisen
at the very birth of the race constitutes
one of the most interesting studies in the
worlds progress. The province of Maryland
had been granted to young man of TWEEN
ty-six years, Cecilius Calvert, the second
Baron Baltimore and first lord proprietary
of Maryland. 1t embraced an area of from
1O,000 to IL, 900 miles, more less.
This grant had three special features
| which distinguished 1t from all others. 1t
and style of province. 1t was the largest
land grant ever made by a sovereign of
England to subject, and 1t was the first
to induce immortal rights. There was given
with this royal grant the right to establish
In the new world a system of land tenure
and distribution which had gradually dis
appeared from the older country, enabling
Lord Baltimore to erect manors and hold
immortal courts which Charles, King of
England, could not there enjoy.
Rights Of Memorial Lords.
1.-The transportation of the manor of
the middle ages to Maryland was success
full. Cecilius Calvert has been criticised
for return to the thirteenth century in
stead Of using his own contemporaneous
period of the Stuarts, but as has Justly
been remarked, the environment of the set
tiers in Maryland in 1884 bore a much
closer resemblance to the condition of af-
fairs In England under King John than
they did in the time of Charles I. Let us
for moment compare the two. The old
manors had two distinguishing traits with
out which they became simple freeholds
The first was the right of the lord of
other was the possession of demesne land
Both of these were reproduced In the man.
| ors of Maryland. The English manors
usually contained 1000 acres. The Mary
LOCO acres, but might include 10000 to TO-
900 acres
The special prerogatives claimed by the
lords of the manor were trial by peers,
freedom from ignominious death, summons
by special writ to every assembly, right to
keep stray cattle and right to an escheat of
tenements, but the most important of all
was the right to hold court baron and
court leet.
THE court baron was the civil court, and
had jurisdiction over the freeholders 1t
| regulated the redress of nuisances and the
settlement Of agrarian disputes.
"In the court baron the freeholders were
judges though the steward. seneschal,
OF the manor presided. The court baron
was called at the will of the steward. The
| court leet Qeute people, was the petty
criminal court Of the manor. 1t took cog
nizance of the peace of the manor and ex-
| ercised jurisdiction over all the lords ten
category of those amenable to 1t Is inter-
esting. 1t included such as have double
measure, who buy by the great and sell by
the less; such as haunt tavern and no man
knoweth wherein they do live; such as
sleep by day and watch by night, fare well
and have nothing
And, indeed. 1t might seem that we
have not made such vast progress in the
genera supervision of trade, the prices of
| bread and ale were fixed by the court leet,
and there Is a foreshadowing of modern
conditions in dealing with butchers who
sell corrupt victual.' The manors are gone
but even today vestiges of immortal Gus
toms may be discovered throughout the
state. The ground rent, that unequal
blessing, the survival of the old quit rent
the omission of the clergy from public office
the necessity for an act of legislator to re-
ceive inhritance by the county courts Of
Virginia. Maryland and the English south
are the direct descendants of the court
baron and the court leet.
Early Manor Grants.
Perhaps the earliest mention of a manor
grant was one of 4,OO6 acres allotted to Capt
Henry Fleet by the governor and commits
sioners of West ST. Mary's. Nothing re-
manor. granted to Thomas Gerard, is one
of the most notable of which traces still
survive. Bushwood, the home of Robert
Slye, Gerard S son-in-law, was the meeting
place for the assembly which Endorsed Fem
dalrs rebellion. 1t Is also notable as pos
sessing the only record of a court baron
and a court leet still In existence 1t is
also remarkable in that 1t contains within
its borders both Protestant chapel and
Roman Catholic chapel from which the
surrounding country was served. It Is one
of the best preserved houses in Maryland
and was in the possession of the descen-
dant of Gerard in the last half century
"Bashford manor has as It's survival the
quaint little building of Bachelors Hope
ION Trinity manor we have the building
of Calvert's Rest, which shows where the
hand Of a modern architect was laid, and
1t is the house from whence were issued the
proclamations of William Calvert the son
of Leonard.
ION st. Gabriel's is the old house of
which tradition asserts that there Martin
Kirk made his contract by the delivery of
turf and twig with Mary Brent, the lady
of the manor.
Going up from Point Lookout is st.