VILLEIN

A person attached to a manor, who was substantially in the condition of a slave, who performed the base and servile work upon the manor for the lord, and was, in most respects, a subject of property and belonging to him. Villein in gross. A villein who was annexed to the person of the lord, and transferable by deed from one owner to another. Villein regardant. A villein annexed to the manor of land; a serf. Villein services. Base services, such as villeins performed. They were not, however, exclusively confined to villeins. Bince they might be performed by freemen, without impairing their free condition. Bract, fol. 246. Villein socage. In feudal and old English law. A species of tenure in which the services to be rendered were certain and determinate, but were of a base or servile nature; i.e., not suitable to a man of free and honorable rank. This was also called “privileged villeinage,” to distinguish it from “pure villeinage,” in which the services were not certain, but the tenant was obliged to do whatever he was commanded. Engl. law. A species of slave during the feudal times. 2. The feudal villein of the lowest order was unprotected as to property, and subjected to the post ignoble services; but his circumstances were very different from the slave of the southern states, for no person was, in the eye of the law, a villein, except as to his master; in relation to all other persons he was a freeman.