Note 385 — Chapter VI

I cannot surrender this point (cf. Stevenson, l. c.). That Borough English existed in many free boroughs and among free sokemen is true, of course, and there it had nothing to do with servile status. It would have been wrong to treat the custom of inheritance as a sure test from a general point of view. But as a matter of fact it was treated as such a test from a local point of view by many, if not most, manorial arrangements. I refer again to the case from the Note-book of Bracton, pl. 1062. The lord is adducing as proof of a plea of villainage: 'Hoc bene patet, quia postnatus filius semper habuit terram patris sui sicut alii villani de patria.' I have said already that the succession of the youngest son appears with merchet, reeveship, etc., as a servile custom.