The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

Reinold and MattJiczv Marvin 33
ment of a nominal ground-rent to the lord of the manor :
fourpence an acre for good land was thought a fair rate in
the time of Richard II (1381).* Such lands passed by the
Will of a tenant (as will be seen in several of the Wills be-
low) in the same manner as free-hold, except that they were
subject, on the death of a tenant, to the payment of "fines"
to the lord, and certain court fees.f In this case the " Lord
of the manor " was the Prioress and sisterhood of an Augus-
tinian nunnery, founded in Dartford by Edward III, in 1355,
whose rights entitled them to collect a small annual rental,
and to receive a portion of the "fines" when the copy-hold
passed to a new tenant.
John Marvin directed that his interment should be in the
Washbrooke Churchyard ;
the Church in this little Parish
*See Guest, " Handbook of English History," p. 301. The term " copy-hold " came
from the technical expression, " tenure by copy of the court-roll, at the will of the lord,
according to the custom of the manor " ; meaning, says one authority, that it is " tenure
of land which is part of a manor, the title being evidenced by the court-rolls of the
manor, and the right of the owner being in conformity with the immemorial customs
thereof."
t The " fine of lands " was an ancient method of transferring property which was
more efficacious than an ordinary conveyance. An amicable suit was brought, in
which one party, called the cognizee, claimed that the owner or seller, called the cog-
nizor, was wrongfully withholding the land from the complainant; leave to compromise
this fictitious suit was granted by the court, the cognizor acknowledging the withhold-
ing, and the business was concluded by what was called the " foot of the fine," em-
bodied in an indenture beginning " Ilaec estfinalis concordia," [This is the final agree-
ment] which set forth the parties, the time and place of agreement, etc., and a note
was made of the facts on the Court records. This was long the only way by which a
married woman could convey lands. The " feet " of old fines are often of great impor-
tance as evidence in pedigrees, and if the records of the transfers of the copy-holds
mentioned in the various Wills we have found could be carefully investigated, it is very
certain that much additional information concerning the wives (of whom in most cases
we now know only their Christian names) and their families could be ascertained.