Court-Leet

The name of an English court of record held once in the yeaT, and not oftener, within a particular hundred, lordship or manor, before the steward of the leet; being the king's court granted by charter to the lords of those hundreds or manors. Its office was to view the frankpledges,—that is, the frcemen within the liberty; to present by jury crimes happening within the jurisdiction; and to punish trivial misdemeanors. It has now, however, for the most part, fallen Into total desuetude; thongh in some manors a court-leet is still periodically held for the transaction of the administrative business of the manor. Mozley & Whitley.