Series 2 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society

206 THE FORBES BARON COURT BOOK
abundant, but little of it has been published or (so far as I
know) examined. Two Court Books, those of the baronies
of Urie, Kincardineshire, and Stitchill, Roxburghshire,
have been published by the Scottish History Society ; the
Barony Court Book of Corshill, Ayrshire, forms part of
one of the volumes issued by the Ayrshire and Wigtonshire
Archaeological Association ; and short extracts from other
Baron Court Books have been included in the Spalding
Miscellany, vol 5, and in the Transactions of the Banffshire
Field Club, vol. 24. These last, as well as the Urie book,
refer to the north-eastern counties. But examination
will show that this fact does not affect the value of the
present publication, which in subject matter and procedure
differs materially from the Baron Court Book of Urie as
well as from its other predecessors in print. However,
they are its predecessors, and the editors of the two Scot¬
tish History Society publications have prefaced them with
learned and laborious introductions. The present editor,
therefore, might hold himself excused from going deeply
into the antiquities of the subject, even if he were qualified
for such a task.
In England, from the earliest days of feudalism, every
manor had a right to hold its Court Baron, held (in legal
theory) not by the lord of the manor but by the suitors,
that is, the tenants ; an arrangement which gives some
colour to the theory that in older times the land had been
divided not into manors under a lord but into townships
consisting of free tenants. At all events, the manor court
had jurisdiction qua manor court, apart from any royal
or other grant. But it could not exercise any franchise,
that is special jurisdiction other than the pettiest, unless
by special grant or by immemorial possession : in which
case, the court was not a court baron but a court leet, or view