VILLENAGE, in Law. The folk-land, or estates held in villenage, was a species of tenure neither strictly feudal, Norman, nor Saxon, but mixed and compounded of them all; and which also, on account of the heriots that usually attend it, may seem to have somewhat Danish in its composition. Under the Saxon government, there were, as Sir William Temple speaks, a sort of people in a condition of downright servitude, used and employed in the most servile works, and belonging, both they, their children, and effects, to the lord of the soil, like the rest of the cattle or stock upon it. These seem to have been those who held what was called the folk-land, from which they were removeable at the lord’s pleasure. On the arrival of the Normans. It seems not improbable that they who were strangers to any other than a feudal state, might give some measure of enfranchisement to such wretched persons as fell to their share, by admitting them, as well as others, to the oath of fealty, which conferred a right of protection, and raised the tenant to a kind of state superior to downright slavery, but inferior to every other condition. This they called villenage, and the tenants villeins.

These villeins, belonging principally to lords of manors, were either villeins regardant, that is, annexed to the manor or land; or else they were in gross, or at large, that is, annexed to the person of the lord, and transferable by deed from one owner to another. They could not leave their lord without his permission; but if they ran away, or were purloined from him, might be claimed and recovered by action, like beasts or other chattels. They held indeed small portions of land by way of sustaining themselves and families, but it was at the mere will of the lord, who might dispossess them whenever he pleased; and it was upon villein services, that is, to carry out dung, to hedge and ditch the lord’s demesnes, and any other the meanest offices; and their services were not only base, but uncertain both as to their time and quantity. A villein could acquire no property either in lands or goods; if he purchased either, the lord might seize them to his own use, unless be contrived to dispose of them again before the lord had seized them, for the lord had then lost his opportunity

In many places a fine was also payable to the lord, if the villein presumed to marry his daughter to any one without leave from the lord; and by the common law, the lord might also bring an action against the husband for damages in thus purloining his property; for the children of villeins were also in the same state of bondage with their parents; whence they were called in Latin nativi, which gave rise to the female appellation of a villein, who was called a neife. In case of a marriage between a freeman and a neife, or a villein and a free woman, the issue followed the condition of the father, being free if he was free, and a villein if he was villein, contrary to the maxim of the civil law, partus seguitur ventrem. But no bastard could be born a villein, because by another maxim of our law, he is nullius filius; and as he can gain nothing by inheritance. It were hard that he should lose his natural freedom by it. The law however protected the persons of villeins against atrocious injuries of the lord; for he might not kill or maim his villein, although he might beat him with impunity.

Villeins might be enfranchised by manumission. In process of time they gained considerable ground on their birds; and in particular they strengthened the tenure of their estates to that degree, that they came to have in them an interest in many places fully as good, in others better than their lords. For the good-nature and benevolence of many lords of manors having, time out of mind, permitted their villeins and their children to enjoy their possessions without interruption, in a regular course of descent. the common law, of which custom is the life, now gave them title to prescribe against their lords; and, on performance of the same services, to hold their lands in spite of any determination of the lord’s will. For though in general they are still said to hold their estates at the will of the lord, yet it is such a will as is agreeable to the custom of the manor; which customs are preserved and evidenced by the rolls of the several courts-baron in which they are entered, or kept on foot by the constant immemorial usage of the several manors in which the lands lie. And as such tenants had nothing to show for their estates but those cus [7:21:651] toms, and admissions in pursuance of them, entered on these rolls, or the copies of such entries witnessed by the steward, they now began to be called tenants by copy of court roll, and their tenure itself a copyhold.