that it could not be alienated or disposed of. These feuds were all of a military nature, and in the hands of military persons, and the lands were cultivated by inferior tenants, who made their returns or reditus in service, corn, cattle, or money.

That the feudal influence was general in the isle of Man, there can be no doubt, as appears by the ancient constitution of Sir John Stanley before quoted, and his intention of seizing the bishops and abbots' temporalities who neglected to do faith and fealty to the king, evinced by the following ordinance, extracted from the records in the Rolls Office.

“In the year 1422, the tenants and commons of Sir John Stanley, then king of the isle, were convened to a court held on the hill of Rencurling, at which court the bishop of Man was cal led to come to do his faith and fealty unto the lord, as the law asketh; and to shew by what claim he holdeth his lands and tenements within the lordship of Man; the which came and did his faith and fealty to the lord: The abbott also of Rushen and priors of Douglas were called to do their fealty, and to shew their claims of their holdings, lands, &c.; the whole came and did their fealty to the lord. The prior of Whithorn in Galloway, the abbott of Furnace, the abbott of Bangor, the abbott of Sabale, and the prior of Saint Bede in Copeland, were called but came not; therefore they were deemed by the deemsters, that they should come in their proper persons, within forty days, and if they came not, then to lose all their temporalities, to be seized in to the lord's hands in the same court.”

We are also informed in Lindsay of Pitscottie's History of Scotland*, that "James the Fifth of Scotland passed over to the isles, and caused the great men to show their holdings; wherethrough he found many of the said lands in nonentry, the which he confiscate and brought home to his own use, and afterwards annexed them to the crown.”

Notwithstanding the feudal tenures of the barons †, it is manifest, from the following data, that the ancient nativi originally held their lands in purum villenagium, or absolutely at the will of the king, not being permitted to hold them against his inclination; and this state of villenage is supposed to be a monument of Norwegian tyranny. In process of time the Manks acquired a more liberal tenure, in the nature of villenagium privilegiatem, which tenure was called holding by the straw, and was similar to the ancient tenure of the verge in England.

It is recorded in the ancient book of Customary Laws, written in the fourteenth century, in these words: Certain old customs given for law, which have never been put in writing, but used and allowed of long time heretofore." Amongst other ordinances it is ordained, "that the land seting to the people shall take place before Midsummer, and that the lieutenant

* Page 152.

+ Four baronies exist at this day, viz. the lord bishop's ba rony, the abbot's barony, held by his Grace the Duke of Atholl, the barony of Bangor and Sabel, held by lease from the crown by the Duke, and the barony of Saint Trinians, also held by the Duke.

shall swear four men of every parish to deliver to every one his holding, who were to see that every one manured and occupied his lands to the best of his power, and be resident thereon, and· that they be cherished so as to be able to rear the lord's rent, of their corn for the most part, though there be no herring-fishing; for by default of livery and partition of land, every one runneth to another and occupies it, and then will each one meet other, and so they lose their goods, which grieveth them worse than the farm, and the lord never the better.

"We also give for law, that the husbandman's

son is my lord's treasure, for that he is to be tenant, when any poor man doth fall into poverty and is not able to provide rent; then he is to be taken and set in the said ground by force and virtue, and then he must pay the lord's rent as long as he is able; except he fall into poverty he shall keep it still; except he is his father's eldest son, and if his father die he shall be set at liberty.

"We find that the barons ought to have no title to any person that is born out of the country, and that cometh into the land; he ought to be put into the lord's farm before any other."

When, at a remote period, the aforesaid ordinances prevailed, the great body of the Manks people appear to have been precisely in the situation of the English who occupied the folk-land, or estates held in villanage, and were not freemen.

With respect to the appellation of freemen, the old law of England honoured only those with that name, who, whether of illustrious an

cestry, or the best born among the people, were not tenants of the rustic estates, sacred to Stercutius*

The lands in the Isle of Man were held by no positive assurance of the kings or barons, but distributed among the commoners at the pleasure of the chief, and resumed at his discretion. Afterwards, by the benevolence of the king and barons, the tenor approximated to the privileged villanage described by Bracton, who wrote on English tenures in the 12th century. He says, that "there were at the time of the conquest certain free men, who held their respective tenements freely, by free services or by free customs; and being first ejected by the hand of power, they afterwards returned, and took their own tenements again, to be held in villanage; doing, therefore, services that were base and servile, but certain and expressed by name. These are called ascriptitious to the soil, and yet are freemen, though they perform villan services, since they perform them not in respect of their persons, but in respect of their tenures. And they are therefore called ascriptitious to the soil, because they enjoy this privilege, that they cannot be removed from the land, so long as they can discharge their bounden renders; nor can they be compelled to hold such their tenements against their will."

At length, after a series of immemorial indulgencies and customs, the Manks not only became ascriptitious to the soil, but acquired

* Selden, An. Angl. 1. 2. s. 97.

† Lib. 1. c. 11.

a permanent estate, descendible from ancestor to heir, in the nature of liberum socagium, subject to military services, pecuniary rents, fines, &c. During this state of things, the tenant or feudatory could not alien, or otherwise dispose of his feud, neither could he exchange, nor mortgage, or devise it by will without the consent of the king or lord.

There is reason to believe, that the Manks prince, Goddard Crownan, first gave his subjects a limited tenure, for some services performed by them in the north part of the island, on condition that none of them should ever presume to claim their lands as an absolute estate of inheritance; but this was unavoidably subject to considerable interruptions, owing to the unsettled state of the government, particularly at the commencement of the Scotish dynasty in the island, about the year 1266, when Alexander the Third, King of Scotland, conquered the Western Isles, and afterwards the Isle of Man.

The records of the island do not inform us at what period of their history alienation of the land was first permitted, on license from, and payment of a fine to the king or lord :probably soon after Sir William Montacute had conquered the island, and was proclaimed king. His character was eminently distinguish ed for magnanimity, liberality, and generosity, and possessing these eminent qualities, it is reasonable to presume, that he would be generously disposed to put his subjects on a footing, in some measure, with the English, who, after various struggles, had obtained by Mag