Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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In the days before legal definition had done its work, it must often have been difficult to say on which side of the line separating Petty Serjeanties from Grand Serjeanties any particular holding fell. Gradually, however, important and practical distinctions were established, making it necessary that the boundary should be defined with accuracy. In particular, the rule was established that Petty Serjeanties, while liable for relief, were exempt altogether from the burdensome incidents of wardship and marriage, which Grand Serjeanties shared with lands held by ordinary Barony or Knight’s service.^[75] Thus the way was prepared for the practical identification of the Petty Serjeanties with ordinary socage at a later date.

(7) Burgage, confined exclusively to lands within free boroughs, is mentioned as a separate tenure by Littleton,^[76] and his authority receives support from the words of chapter 37 of Magna Carta. Our highest modern authorities,^[77] however, consider that it never acquired sufficiently distinct characteristics to warrant its acknowledgment as such. They treat it rather as a special variety of socage, used where the tenants were the members of a corporation. If their opinion must be accepted for England, it follows that, from common antecedents, entirely different results have developed in Scotland and in England respectively. While, north of the Tweed, several of the well-established English tenures have failed to make good their right to separate recognition, burgage has established itself beyond a doubt. Even the levelling process consummated by the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act of 1874 has not entirely abolished its separate existence.