204 THE MANOR COURT
punished, usually by a fine.1 He had the consolation on many
manors of knowing that his presence there was reckoned as one
of the works he was forced to render weekly to his lord, although
on some manors he was not allowed to count it as such if the
court sat on a holy-day.2 The attendance of the free man, as we
have seen, was another matter. His compulsory appearance was
generally a question of the bargain struck between him and his
lord when his land was granted to him. But certain considera-
tions other than the strict legal requirements should not be
ignored. It must be remembered that the Manor Court fre-
quently exercised both police and criminal jurisdiction as well as
private, and to this both serf and free were amenable. Then, again,
many free men held villein tenements and were bound to attend
to answer any matters touching them. We must also remember
that the freeholders were concerned (to some degree) in the
stinting of the commons and in the ordinary agricultural arrange-
ments, and these were generally discussed at the meetings of the
court. For these reasons, therefore, despite the dangers (perhaps
more theoretical than actual) which the free man ran in presenting
himself at court, it seems probable that he often did attend, and
that by so doing his personal status did not suffer in the eyes
either of his lord or of his unfree companions.3
As we come closer to the actual working of the Manor Courts
we must remember that, while they all conformed to a general
pattern, each had its own particularities and customs. The
thirteenth-century How to hold Pleas and Courts says that "those
who plead or have to hold courts.. .should know the customs of
that...court or manor, and the franchises pertaining to the
premises, for laws and customs differ in divers places".* A
number of practical guides to help those whose duty it was to
hold courts had appeared in the thirteenth century, and these be-
came particularly notable in the sixteenth century and onwards,
when lawyers made further efforts to establish some uniformity
1 See Durham Halmote or Hales Rolls, passim.
8 Ramsey Cart. I, 464; Suffolk Inst. Arch, in, 237; V.C.H. Hants, v, 414;
Sussex Rec. Soc. xxxi, 15, 23, 44, etc. See above, p. 114.
8 For discussion of the view held by Coke and others that the presence of
free men was necessary in order to constitute a court, see Selden Soc. II,
itiii, and Villainage, 387—9.
4 Selden Soc. rv, 68.