"The _court-baron_ is a court incident to every manor in the kingdom, _to be holden by the steward within the said manor_. This court-baron is of two natures; the one is a customary court, of which we formerly spoke, appertaining entirely to the copy-holders, in which their estates are transferred by surrender and admittance, and other matters transacted relative to their tenures only. The other, of which we now speak, is a court of common law, and it is a court of the barons, by which name the freeholders were sometimes anciently called; _for that it is held by the freeholders who owe suit and service to the manor, the steward being rather the registrar than the judge_. These courts, though in their nature distinct, are frequently confounded together. _The court we are now considering, viz., the freeholders court, was composed of the lord's tenants, who were the pares_ (equals) _of each other, and were bound by their feudal tenure to assist their lord in the dispensation of domestic justice_. This was formerly held every three weeks; and its most important business is to determine, by writ of right, all controversies relating to the right of lands within the manor. It may also hold plea of any personal actions, of debt, trespass in the case, or the like, where the debt or damages do not amount to forty shillings; which is the same sum, or three marks, that bounded the jurisdiction of the ancient Gothic courts in their lowest instance, or _fierding courts_, so called because four were instituted within every superior district or hundred."--3 _Blackstone_, 33, 34.
"A _hundred court_ is only a larger court-baron, being held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred, instead of a manor. _The free suitors are here also the judges, and the steward the registrar, as in the case of a court-baron._ It is likewise no court of record, resembling the former at all points, except that in point of territory it is of greater jurisdiction. This is said by Sir Edward Coke to have been derived out of the county court for the ease of the people, that they might have justice done to them at their own doors, without any charge or loss of time; but its institution was probably coeval with that of hundreds themselves, which were formerly observed to have been introduced, though not invented, by Alfred, being derived from the polity of the ancient Germans. The _centeni_, we may remember, were the principal inhabitants of a district composed of different villages, originally in number a _hundred_, but afterward only called by that name, and who probably gave the same denomination to the district out of which they were chosen. Cæsar speaks positively of the judicial power exercised in their hundred courts and courts-baron. '_Princeps regiorum atque pagorum_' (which we may fairly construe the lords of hundreds and manors) '_inter suos jus dicunt, controversias que minuunt_.' (The chiefs of the country and the villages declare the law among them, and abate controversies.) And Tacitus, who had examined their constitution still more attentively, informs us not only of the authority of the lords, but that of the _centeni_, the hundreders, or jury, _who were taken out of the common freeholders, and had themselves a share in the determination. 'Eliguntur in conciliis et principes, qui jura per pagos vicosque reddunt, centeni singulis, ex plebe comites concilium simul et auctoritas adsunt_.' (The princes are chosen in the assemblies, who administer the laws throughout the towns and villages, and with each one are associated an hundred companions, taken from the people, for purposes both of counsel and authority.) This hundred court was denominated _hæreda_ in the Gothic constitution. But this court, as causes are equally liable to removal from hence as from the common court-baron, and by the same writs, and may also be reviewed by writ of false judgment, is therefore fallen into equal disuse with regard to the trial of actions."--_3 Blackstone_, 34, 35.