USA > New York > Westchester County > Origin and History of Manors in the Province of New York and in the County. > Part 15
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This jurisdiction was the very essence, so to speak, of a Manor, for the same great authority also says, that, " A Manor in these days [the age of Elizabeth, in which Coke wrote] signifieth the jurisdiction and royalty incorporate rather than the land or scite."?
An old English Manor may be said to have con- sisted of :-
1. Demesne lands, which were the Lords personal demesne. These were of two kinds, first, the Manor- House and the land immediately about, or adjacent to, it, which the Lord himself cultivated for his own maintenance, or demised to others to be cultivated for that purpose, on terms of years, or for the life of the tenants; and secondly, the uncultivated lands of the manor including those allowed as common lands for pasturage, &c., to the freehold tenants generally, which were termed the "wasted lands," or more usually the "Lords waste," not because they were worth nothing, but because they were untilled.
2. The services, rents, and duties, reserved to the Lord upon the original freehold leases to the freehold tenants of the manor.
3. The reversion of those parts of the demesne lands granted for lives or terms of years, and of those escheated to the Lord in the case of freehold tenants dying intestate and without heirs.
4. Jurisdiction in a Court-Baron, and the rents and services of the freehold tenants liable to escheat and owing attendance as suitors at the Court. This Court was a necessary incident of a manor, and without it, and at least two suitors, no manor could exist. The Lord, or his Steward always presided, no one else could hold it. The freehold tenants were the judges of fact, just as jurors are in ordinary Courts; thus no
man could be tried except by his peers. It was an absolute necessity that it should be held within the Manor limits, for if held outside, its proceedings were null and void. Hence it was usually held in or near the Manor House.
5. The right to hold a Court-Leet. This Court was not necessary to the existence of a manor as a Court-Baron was. It was simply one of the general franchises given in and by a Manor Grant. It was not given to all manors, but in those in New York it was usually one of the franchises granted. All the manors in Westchester County possessed this fran- chise. The Court-Leet was a Court of Record having a similar jurisdiction to the old Sheriff's " Tourns " or migratory courts held by the Sheriff in the different districts, or ' hundreds' of his County, for the punish- ment of minor offences and the preservation of the peace, but had more extended powers. It was a criminal Court only and took cognizance of all crimes from the smallest misdemeanors, up to, but excluding, treason. It was granted to lords of manors "in order that they might administer justice to their tenants at home."' All the people in the district of the Court- Leet were bound to attend under penalty of a small fine. The Steward of the Manor was the judge, and the people of the manor alone could be the jurors. " Anciently," said Lord Mansfield, " the Tourn and the Leet (derived out of it) were the principal Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction ; coeval with the establish- ment of the Saxons here. There were no traces of them either among the Romans or Britons; but the activity of these Courts is marked very visibly both among the Saxons and the Danes." "
6. The Franchises annexed or appendant to a Manor. These were privileges specifically given by the Crown in the Grants of manors, or of lands not manors. "A franchise," says Cruise, " is a royal privilege or branch of the King's prerogative sub- sisting in a subject by a grant from the Crown."" When so granted they were said to be appendant to the manor, or other grant in which they are set forth. There was nothing whatever which was "feudal " in their nature. They were simply favors extended by the crown to the grantees of lands whether manorial, or non-manorial, to increase the value and enjoyment of their properties. They varied much, some manors having more, some less. Most of these franchises were common to both manorial, and non-manorial, lands. Some, however, were only granted to Manors, and were held by their Lords in addition to those com- mon to both these classes of Crown-granted lands. Among those of the non-manorial lands were Hunt- ing, Hawking, Fowling, Fishing, &c., among the lat- ter, those of Courts-Baron, Courts-Leet, Waifs, Estrays. Advowsons, Deodands, &c. In the case of Manors
1 CHted in Cruise on Dignities, 24.
2 Ibid.
8 Coke 2 Inst. 70.
43 Burrow's Rep. 1860. See as to the jurisdiction of these Courts Hallam's " Middle Ages," 347.
6 Digest, Title, xxvil. ¿ 1.
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
there were often special franchises granted, growing out of the geographical situation of the land itself, or other special circumstances of a local nature, such as franchises to establish ferries, bridges, fairs and markets ; and for the tenants to meet and choose assessors and other local officers, and elect represen- tatives of the Manor in the General Assembly. The latter, a very high franchise, was conferred upon three only out of the great number of Manors in New York. These were the Manors of Cortlandt, Living- ston, and Rensselaerswyck, of which the former, the first in which the franchise was granted, was the only one in Westchester County. All three of them bordered upon the Hudson River, and eventually embraced within their territorial limits large numbers of inhabitants.
All these franchises were what the law terms "in- corporeal hereditaments," which are rights and pro- fits arising from, or annexed to, land. Among them was that of advowson and church patronage. An ad- vowson is a right of presentation to a church, or any ecclesiastical benefice. It existed in New York, during the Colonial period. The word is derived from the Latin advocatio, which means receiving in clientship, because in England originally the one possessing this right was termed advocatus ecclesic, as he was bound to defend and protect, both the rights of the church, and the clergyman in charge, from op- pression and violence. Hence the right of presenta- tion to a church acquired the name of advowson, and he who possessed the right was called the patron of the church. The origin of the right was this :- In the early days of Christianity the nomination of all ecclesiastical benefices belonged to the Church. When the piety of some rich and prominent men, or great lords, induced them to build churches, near, or upon, their own estates, and endow them with land called a glebe, or to appropriate the rent or tithes from neighbouring lands of their own, to their support, the bishops, (non-episcopal church organizations did not then exist) desiring to encourage such pious un- dertakings, permitted these rich men to appoint what person they pleased to officiate in such churches, and receive the emoluments annexed to them ; reserving to themselves only the power to examine, judge of, and pass upon, the qualifications of the persons so nomi- nated. Originally a mere indulgence, this practice in process of time became a right. And those who had either founded or endowed a church naturally claimed and exercised the right of presenting a clergyman to the bishop for institution whenever the Church became vacant. This right of presentation originally allowed to the person who built or endowed a church, became by degrees annexed to the estate or Manor in which it was erected ; for the endowment, whether land, or tithes of its produce, was taken as part of the Manor and held of it; hence the right of presentation passed with the Estate or Manor to which it was appendant by grant, and thus became a species of property.
' Presentation ' is the offering of a clergyman by the patron, or owner, of an advowson to the Bishop or or- dinary, by a kind of letter in writing, requesting him to admit the clergyman named in it to the Church. When the Bishop, or Ordinary, after due examina- tion, certified in writing that the clergyman was a fit person to serve the church, the latter was said to be "admitted." The Bishop, or Ordinary then "institut- cd" the clergyman, by the formal commitment to him of the cure of souls. This was done by the clergyman kneeling before the bishop and reading his promise of faithful duty from a written instrument prepared beforehand with the episcopal seal attached, which he held in his hands, and afterwards retained. This gave him the right to the temporalities of the Church. After the completion of the "Institution " the Bishop, or Ordinary, issued a "Mandate of Induc- tion" in writing, directed to him who had the power to induct of common right, or, in case of there being no person possessing this power, to any other proper person whom he saw fit to name, to perform the of- fice. The Actual Induction was made by the author- ized person taking the clergyman and putting his hand on the door, wall, or other part of the church edifice, and saying to this effect-" By virtue of this mandate to me directed I do induct you into the real, actual, and corporeal possession of the Church of -(naming it) with all the rights, profits, and appurtenances thereunto belonging," or similar words to that effect. He then opened the door, and led the new clergyman into the church, who usually tolled the bell, if there was any, for a few moments, to make known his induction to his parishioners and the pub- lic. This course was followed in New York, and the other British-American colonies in which the church of England existed. But as there was no Bishop at that time in this country, the Ordinary was either the Governor, by virtue of his Commission, or the Bishop of London's Commissary, who was a clergyman ap- pointed by the Bishop to perform certain adminis- trative duties here, and one or the other acted in the Bishop's place. The Governor of the Province usually issued the mandate of, and appointed a proper person to perform the ceremony of, Induction.
This right of advowson and church patronage was specifically granted in express terms to four out of the six manors in Westchester County, and is set forth specifically in the Manor Grants of ' Cortlandt,' ' Phil- ipseburgh,' 'Pelham,' and 'Morrisania.' In that of Scarsdale it is not granted, nor in that of Fordham, a proof of the statement made above that Manor fran- chises varied in different Manor Grants.
At the beginning, the instruments of Presentation and Induction in New York were in Latin, and many of them are recorded in the public offices of the older Counties, in that tongue. Later they were in English. The following is a complete sequence of these curious and instructive documents showing the Collation and Induction into the "Parish of Rye,
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Mamaroneck, and Bedford," of the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, as its incumbent in the year 1763, the whole being in English. The originals are in the possession of John C. Jay, M.D., of Rye. They are printed in Bolton's History of the Church in the County of Westchester, page 300, etc. The headings do not appear in the originals. In this case the right of Patronage was vested in the Wardens and Vestry of the Parish itself, as was often the case.
THE PRESENTATION TO THE PARISH OF RYE OF MR. EBENEZER PUNDERSON.
"To the Honorable Cadwallader Colden, Esq., his Majesty's Lien- tenant Governour, and Commander in Chief of the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon, in America :
The Churchwardens and Vestrymen of the Parish of Rye, including the districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester, in the Province of New-York, the true and un- doubted patrons of the said Parish, within your Honour's government, in all reverence and obedience to your Honour, due and suitable, send greeting, in our Lord God everlasting, and certifye that to the said Par- ish of Rye, including the districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, now being vacant by the natural death of James Wetmore, the last incumbent of the same, and to our presentation of full right be- longing, we have called our beloved in Christ, Ebenezer Punderson, Clerk, to officiate in the said Parish church of Rye, called Grace Church ; and him, the said Ebenezer Punderson, sends by these presents to your Honour, present, humbly praying that you would vouchsafe him to the mid church and Parish of Rye, including the districts or pre- cincts aforesaid, to admit, institute, and cause to be inducted, with all its righta, members, and appurtenances, and that you will, with favour and effect, do and fulfill all and singular, other things which in this behalf are proper and fitting for your honour to do.
In testimony whereof, we, the Churchwardens and vestrymen afore- said, have to these presents put our hands and seals, this day of Novem- ber, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty- three.
EBENEZER KNIFFEN, ANDREW MERRIT.
Churchwardens,
and seven Vestrymen."
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR COLDEN'S ADMISSION OF MR. PUNDERSON TO THE PARISH OF RYE.
"I, CADWALLADER COLDEN, Esquire, his Majesty's Lieutenant Gover. nour, and Commander in Chief of the province of New-York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, do admit you, Ebenezer Pun - derson, Clerk, to be Rector of the Parish Church of Rye, commonly called Grace Church, and of the Parish of Rye, including the several districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester, within the said Province.
Given under my hand and the prerogative seal of the Province of New- York, at Fort George, in the City of New-York, the seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three.
CADWALLADER COLDEN."
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR COLDEN'S INSTITUTION OF MR. PUNDERSON AS RECTOR OF. THE PARISH OF
RYE.
"I, CADWALLADER COLDEN, Esquire, his Majesty's Lieutenant Gover- nour and Commander in Chief of the Province of New-York, and the Territories depending thereon, in America, do institute you, Ebenezer Punderson, Clerk, Rector of the Parish Church, of Rye commonly called Grace Church, and of the Parish of Rye, including the several districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester, In the said Province to have the cure of the souls of the parishioners of the said Parish ; and take your cure and mine.
Given under my hand and the prerogative seal of the Province of New- York, at Fort George, in the City of New-York, the seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three.
CADWALLADER COLDEN."
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR COLDEN'S MANDATE TO INDUCT MR. PUNDERSON INTO THE PARISH OF RYE.
"The Honorable Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, his Majesty's Lieuten- ant Governour and Commander in Chief of the Province of New-York, and the Territories depending thereon in America. To all and singular Rectors and Parish Ministers whatsoever, in the Province of New-York, or to Andrew Merrit and Ebenezer Kniffen, the present Churchwardene of the Parish of Rye, in the County of Westchester, and to the Vestry- men of the said Parish, and to each and every of you, greeting :- Where- as, I have admitted our beloved in Christ, Ebenezer Punderson, Clerk, to the Rectory of the Parish Church at Rye, commonly called Grace Church, and of the Parish of Rye, including the several districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester, within this government, to which the said Ebenezer Punderson was presented unto me by the Churchwardens and Vestrymen of the said Parish, the true and undoubted patrons of the said Parish, vacant, as is my'd by the natural death of James Wetmore, the last incumbent there, on or about the nineteenth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and sixty ; and him, the said Ebenezer Punderson, I have instituted into the Rectory of the wald Parish Church and Parish, with all their righta, members, and appartenances, observing the laws and canons of right, in that behalf required and to be observed. To you therefore, jointly and severally, I do commit, and firmly injoining. do command each and every of you, that in due manner, him, the said Ebenezer Punderson, or his lawfall Proctor, in his name, and for him. into the real actual, and corporal possession of the Rectory of the maid Parish Church and Parish, including the districts and precincts aforemnid, and all of their rights and appur- tenances, whatsoever, you induct, or cause to be inducted, and him so inducted you do defend: and of what you shall have done in the premises thereof, you do duely certify unto me or other competent judge, in that behalf, when there unto you shall be duely required.
Given under my hand and the prerogative seal of the Province of New- York, at Fort George, in the City of New-York, the seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three."
CADWALLADER COLDEN."
CERTIFICATE OF MR. PUNDERSON'S INDUCTION INTO THE RECTORSHIP OF THE PARISH OF RYE.
"I, John Milner, Rector of the Parish of Westchester, in the County of Westchester and Province of New-York, do hereby certifye, that by virtue of a warrant hereunto annexed, from the Honourable Cadwalla- der Colden, Esquire, his Majesty's Lieutenant Governour and Com- mander in Chief of the Province of New-York, aforesaid, and the Terri- tories depending thereon, in America ; I have this day inducted the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, into the real, actual. and corporal possession of the Rectory of the Parish Church of Rye, commonly called Grace Church and of the Parish of Rye, including the several districts or precincts of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Bedford, in the County of Westchester aforesaid, with all their rights, members, and appurtenances, the 21st day of November, Anno Domini, 1763. The induction of the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson being executed, the above certificate was signed, in conse- quence thereof, by the Rev. John Milner, in the presence of na, who subscribe our names as witness thereunto.
JOHN MILNER, Rector of St. Peter's Church Westchester, and twenty-one others."
MR. PUNDERSON'S DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY.
"I, Ebenezer Punderson, do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained and prescribed in and by ye Book entitled the Book of Common Prayer, and administrations of ye tacra- ments; and ye Rites and Ceremonies of ye Church, according to the use of the Church of England ; together with ye Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches, and the form or man- ner of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishope, Priests and Des- cons."
" Upon the 4th day of December, 1763, the above mentioned Ebenez- er Punderson, after divine service wus began, and before it was ended, read distinctly the thirty-nine articles of Religion, and declared his un- feined assent and consent to them ; and also made the above declaration. Witnes, HACHALIAH BROWN, TIMOTHY WETMORE."
The Rents incident to a manor were of two kinds, those arising from the demense lands of the lord, and those from the freehold lands held by the tenants of
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
the manor. It is a proof of the fact that the renting of land from a superior, was a most natural as well as most ancient custom, that from the payment of rent is derived our English word farm. In early Saxon days, and at, and just after, the Norman Conquest, the estates of the chiefs and leaders were cultivated by the people attached to their different lands, the vil- leins, heretofore mentioned, who were practically slaves, and, in the very earliest times, passed with the estates on which they dwelt. In course of time the land owners allowed them to occupy specific parts of their lands at will, yielding a return of corn, hay, of other portions of their crops ; and later they granted them the lands for a certain number of years, by which they were enfranchised, the owners reserving an annual return of portions of the corn or other pro- visions. From this the lands thus granted were called farms, from the Saxon word feorm, which signifies pro- visions.1 This return for the use of the land, was ex- pressed by the Latin word redditus, which means 're- turn,' and from it comes our English word 'rent.'
Rents were of three kinds, 1. Rent service; that is payment of money or produce, and fealty, which was the only rent known to the common law and to which a right of distress was incident. 2. Rent charge; when the rent was created by deed, no fealty was annexed and consequently there could be no distress in case of non-payment; hence an express power of distress was inserted in the deed to cure the difficulty. A rent so reserved was said to be charged with a dis- tress, and hence called a rent charge. 3. Rent seck, or dry or barren rent; this was simply a rent for the recovery of which no power of distress was given by the common law, or by the agreement of the parties .?
All three kinds were used, but the first or rent service was that generally reserved in manor leases in New York. The leases themselves were granted for terms of years of longer or shorter periods, with cov- enants of renewal, or without, as the parties could agree. Usually they were for long terms, and some- times they were made in perpetuity, in which latter case they were called fee-farm leases, and the rents fee-farm rents. In the Westchester County Manors there was great latitude in the character of the lease holds. The Lords and their Tenants were bound by no hard and fast rules, and made just such agreements with each other as they saw fit. Sometimes the right to purchase the fee by the tenant upon terms was in- serted in the leases. But it was the custom generally to sell the reversion of the fee to the tenant, whenever it was desired and the parties could agree upon the terms of the purchase. These leaseholds were de- visable by will, and divisible, with the lord's assent, into parts in the lessee's lifetime. This made it easy for tenants to retain their farms in their families from father to son if they wished, or to divide up a
large farm into smaller ones, among several sons, or married daughters. But in all cases the consent in writing of the lord was necessary. And, as a rule, this was never withheld, when the subdivisions pro- posed were not made too small. In these divisions of a leasehold, the rent was arranged to be paid in one of two ways. Either the lord consented to take it in fixed parts from the holders of the subdivisions, or, which was most usual, it was agreed among the sub- tenants that some one of them should pay the entire rent under the whole lease to the lord, and be re-im- bursed by each ofthem for his own part. The amounts for the different parts were apportioned among them- selves in this case as they chose. When the lord ac- cepted the rent in parts the apportionment was made by him, or his steward, with the tenants at the time such division into parts was agreed upon. In the Manor of Scarsdale, there were, within the personal knowledge of the writer, instances of tenants holding their;farms for four and five generations, and then pur- chasing the reversion of the fee from the lineal repre- sentatives of the Lord to whom the fee had descended. And it may be said that much the greater number of the original tenants of that manor, or their descend- ants became the owners in fee of their farms by'direct purchase from the first Lord, Caleb Heathcote, or his lineal descendants. Several of these farms have been so sold and so acquired in the memory of the writer. Another rule which obtained with the owners of that manor, and with some of the owners of the manor of Cortlandt, also, to the writer's knowledge, was, that no stranger tothe tenants of any farm was ever permitted to purchase the fee of a farm, without the owners first giving the tenant in possession the first opportunity to purchase it. In the latter manor many farms were originally leased to tenants on ninety-nine years leases, and in some instances they have remained in the fam- ilies of the same lords and the same tenants during that entire term, and upon its expiration then sold in fee. One of these farms which descended to the writer, had been divided into four parcels by the origi- nal tenant in the manner above mentioned. And ten years ago, when the ninety-nine years' lease had ex- pired, two portions of it were still in the hands of the great-grandchildren of the first tenant. The right to purchase, though there was no obligation to do so, the term having expired, was offered to them. But not wishing to profit by it, the fee was sold at public auction, and bought by an adjoining neighbor, who some years before had acquired the fee, or " soil right" of his own farm in the same way.
The quit-rents, payable to the sovereign authority, whether the Crown, or, after the Revolution, the State of New York, from all Manors, as well as the Great Patents and Small Patents, granted by the Crown, were incidents of all the Manors, as well as of the other Crown grants of every kind. The term itself is derived from the Latin ' quietus redditus,' and signifies a rent reserved in grants of land, by the
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