Copyhold

C(^hold, [L. Lat. tenu^ ra per copiam rotuli curies; Fr. tenure per copie de court rol^ A tenure or holding by copy of court roll. A species of estate at will, or customary estate in England, the only visible title to which consists of the copies of the court rolls, which are made out by the steward of the manor, on a tenant's being admitted to any parcel of land, or tenement belonging to the manor. 2 Bl. Com, 94, 95, 147. Co, Litt, 58 a. Litt, sect. 75. It is an estate at the will of the lord, yet such a wiU 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. 2 Bl, Com, 95. It is a base tenure, founded upon immemorial custom.* 2 Steph, Com* 43, 44. In a larger sense, copyhold is said to import every customary tenure, (that is, every tenure depending on the particular custom of a manor,) as opposed to free socage, or freehold, which may now, (since the abolition of knight-service) be considered as the general or common law tenure of the country. 1 Steph. Com. 210. See 1 Crabb's Real Prop, 606, § 765, et seq. Burton's Real Prop, ch. vii. Watkins and Scriven on Copyholds, Copyhold is lineally descended from the ancient tenure of pure villenage, the will of the lord by which the villein held having become, in the course of time, so far modified and controlled by custom, as to allow the tenant to hold his lands, on performance of the required services, in spite of any determination of the lord's will. 2 BL Com, 95. 1 Stepk. Com. 201, 210. 1 JReeves* Hist JEng. Law, 39. Copyhold is, in other words, villenage divested of all its slavish incidents. Crabb's Hist Eng. Law, 53«. Villeins appear to have been called custumarii tenentes (customary tenants) in the fourth year of Edw. I.; tenants per roll solonque le volunl le seigneur, (tenants by roll according to the will of the lord,) in 42 Edw. III. 36; tenants per le verge, (by the verge,) in 14 Hen. IV. 34; and copyliolders in 1 Hen. V. 11. Co. Litt 68. 3 Reeves* Hist Eng. Law, 312, 813.