(468) DEMAIN, Demaine, Demayne, Demaygne, Demeyne, Demeigne, Demesne. L. Fr. and Eng. [L. Lat. demanium, domanium, dominicum.] In old English law. A term used to denote a lord's chief manor place, with the lands thereto belonging, which he and his ancestors had, from time out of mind, kept in their own hands or manual occupation. Termes de la Ley. Blount. Derived, accordingly, by Lord Coke, from the Fr. de, of, and main, hand, i. e. manured [mainoured] or received by the hand. Hence manual occupation, possession or receipt. Co. Litt. 17 a. This derivation, however, is not approved by Spelman, who rejects also the word demesne and its etymology, and considers demain as derived from the Lat. dominicum. Spelman, voc. Dominicum. See Demesne, Dominicum. (469) In DEMENTERS, Dementiers. L. Fr. the mean time; meanwhile. Kelham. DEMESNE, Demeyne, Demeine, Demeigne. L. Fr. L. Fr. [Lat. suus, proprius.] Own; one's own. De son tort demesne, (q. v.); of his own wrong. De son seigniour demeyne; of his own lord. Britt. c. 38. DEMESNE, Demeyne, Demaine, Demain. L. Fr. and Eng. [L. Lat. demanium, domanium, dominicum.] In old European law. Land which a man held originally of himself, as distinguished from that held of a superior lord. Hotoman in Verb. Feud. voc. Dominicum. Cowell. Allodium, in contradistinction to feodum; absolute property or ownership. 2 Bl. Com. 104. dominum in dominico). Bract. fol. 81. See infra; and see Dominicum. Land which was manually occupied, manured, and possessed for the necessary sustentation, maintenance and support of the lord and his household. Co. Litt. 17 a. Land held for the support of one's own table, answering to the English bordlands; (quod quis habet ad mensam suam et proprie, sicut sunt bordlandes, Anglicé). Bract. fol. 263. **These are the principal significations of the word demesne; others will be noticed under Dominicum. As to its etymology, there have been various suggestions, viz.: demesne, a man's own land; de main, that of which he has manual occupation; domus, that which is kept for the support of the household. Co. Litt. 17 a. All these, tojected by Spelman, who considers the proper spelling to be demain, the French form of the Latin dominicum, the original word, formed from dominus. See Dominicum. In old English law. Lands wherein a man had proper dominion or ownership, as distinguished from the lands which another held of him in service. Co. Litt. 17 a. Dis-gether with the word demesne itself, are reseisi de son propre tenement que il avera tenu en demeyne et en severalte; disseised of his own proper tenement which he shall have held in demesne and in severalty. Britt. c. 42. This is one of the proper and origiUnder this head it may be proper to connal significations of the term in English law, sider the import of the phrase," in his and has received much illustration from demesne as of fee,"—(L. Lat. in dominico Bracton, who dwells on the primary dissuo ut de feodo;) a phrase of great antiquitinction between lands held in demesne, (in ty in English law, and still retained as dedominico,) and those held in service, (in serscriptive of the highest estate that a subvitio). Bract. fol. 75, 80. The true and ject can have in land. It formed a part of essential meaning of demesne seems to have the old writ of assise of mort d'ancestor, been,-land which a man had under his imand of the count upon a writ of right, and mediate control, either by having it in his is thus explained by Sir William Blackactual manual possession, (see next definistone: "Where a man possesses land tion,) or, (where it was in the occupation of merely in his own right, without owing others,) by having the right to resume posany rent or service to any superior, he is session at pleasure; as was the case with said to be seised thereof absolutely, in dolands held in villeinage, which Bracton minico suo, in his own demesne. But all the calls quasi dominicum. Bract. fol. 263. lands in England, being holden mediately Id. fol. 98. It was the lord's own land, or immediately of the king, are in the naand hence properly called dominicum, (from ture of feodum, or fee, and hence, in exdominus,) in contradistinction to what was pressing the strongest and highest estate held by his tenants, and which was, with that any subject can have, he is said to be equal propriety, called tenementum, (tene-seised thereof in his demesne as of fee.' It ment, or holding). The latter could not be taken back from the tenant (that is, the free tenant,) as long as he performed the services and had heirs, as it could from a villein, (the tenant having in fact, in such case, himself the demesne or dominicum,) but if he committed felony, or died without heir, then the land went back to the lord as an escheat, and the phrase was, tenementum cadit in dominicum ;-the tenement falls or is turned into demesne; that is, it went back into the lord's own hands, and was tenement no longer, (revertitur ad capitalem is a man's demesne, dominicum, or property, since it belongs to him and his heirs forever; yet this dominicum, property, or demesne, is strictly not absolute or allodial, but qualified or feodal; it is his demesne as of fee; that is, it is not purely and simply his own, since it is held of a superior lord, in whom the ultimate property resides." 2 Bl. Com. 105. Mr. Stephen, in his New Commentaries, very justly remarks upon the expression of Blackstone in the above passage," it is a man's demesne, since it belongs to him and (470) the word, supra,) absolute control of property, and fee, though implying tenure, serves primarily to mark the duration of the estate, viz. to a man and his heirs. Bract. ibid. To be seised in demesne as of fee, therefore properly means to have the absolute control of land, (that is, subject to rendering the services due, and saving the right of termors, or tenants for years,) and to enjoy it as an estate of inheritance, (ut de feodo, as of fee). See Dominicum. his heirs forever,”—that it assigns no mean- fol. 46 b, 263, 4, 5. A man, according ing to the words "in his demesne " beto Bracton, might hold land in demesne, yond what would belong to the other and not in fee, which was the estate of words with which they are connected; and a freeholder, or free tenant for life; and, he substitutes, according to the plan of his on the other hand, a man might hold in work, the following explanation of the fee and not in demesne, which was the esphrase under consideration: "Where a tate of a chief lord. Bract. fol. 263 b, man claims an estate in fee simple in pos-¶ 6. Demesne, in the phrase now under session in a corporeal hereditament, the consideration, signifies (as explained under precise technical expression is as follows: that he is 'seised in his demesne as of fee' (in dominico suo ut de feodo); the words in dominico, or 'in his demesne' signifying that he is seised as owner of the land itself, and not merely of the seigniory or services, and the words 'as of fee' importing that he is seised of an estate of inheritance in fee simple, and also, (in reference to the original meaning of the term fee,) that he is not the absolute or allodial owner, but holds (feudally) of a superior lord." 1 Steph. Com. 220. And in a note on this passage, the same author adds, "there is abundant authority for holding that dominicum properly signifies the land which the feudal lord retained to his own use for sustentation of his household, as distinguished from what he granted out on services, and that the true sense of seisin in demesne is that given in the text." Id. ibid. note (x). In addition to these remarks, and to the passages cited by the learned serjeant from Fleta and Bracton in support of them, the compiler of this work would venture to submit the following: Demesne does not appear to have ever had in England the sense of allodial estate upon which the explanation of Blackstone is based, and fee, so far from being employed to restrain or qualify demesne, seems to have been always employed (where the terms were used together) to give it enlargement. Demesne was frequently applied to mere estates for life; so often, indeed, that Spelman considers it as peculiarly descriptive of that species of estate. In dominico seisitus dicitur qui tenet terras aut tenementa ad terminum vitæ. The term was, in fact, applied to estates both for life and in fee, though not peculiar to either, its proper use being rather to denote the manner in which an estate was held, than the duration of it. Bract. fol. 263. Britt. c. 78. It was applied, (and that without any qualification of fee) as often to the estate of a tenant as that of a lord, which is entirely inconsistent with the idea of its denoting allodial property. Bract. This interpretation is derived from the very full exposition of the phrase and its component terms, given by Bracton in treating of the assise of mort d'ancestor in his fourth book, where the whole seems to be summed up in the following sentence: Et unde ex præmissis colligi potest, quod unus potest esse seysitus de aliqua terra vel redditu in dominico suo ut de feodo, et de libero tenemento simul, vel tantum ut de feodo, vel [et?] non in dominico, vel tantum ut de libero tenemento et in dominico, non tamen in feodo, sicut dici poterit de illis qui tantum tenent ad vitam, quacunque ratione. And hence it may be gathered from the premises, that one may be seised of any land or rent in his demesne as of fee, and of freehold at the same time; or only as of fee, or [and] not in demesne; or only as of freehold and in demesne, yet not in fee; as may be said of those who only hold for life, in whatever way. Bract. fol. 263 b, 264. The same author takes notice of, and comments on the peculiar expression as of fee," which he says in some cases denoted merely resemblance or appearance, in the sense of quasi (as it were); in others, actual verity or reality, in the sense of sicut (even as, just as); being applicable, in the latter sense, only to possession under a lawful title; so that "to be seised as of fee" meant, in such cases, nothing more in effect than "to be seised in fee." Bract. ub. sup. (471) occupation. Lands set apart and appro-[ priated by the lord for his own private use, as for the supply of his table, and the maintenance of his family; the opposite of tenemental lands, (terræ tenementales). Tenancy and demesne, however, were not in every sense the opposites of each other; lands held for years or at will being included among demesne lands, as well as those in the lord's actual possession. Spelman, voc. Dominicum. 2 Bl. Com. 90. See Demesne, Dominicum. DEMESNÉ LANDS OF THE CROWN. [L. Lat. terræ dominicales regis.] In English law. That share of lands reserved to the crown at the original distribution of landed property; or such as came to it afterwards by forfeitures, or other means. These anciently were very large and extensive, but at present are contracted within a very narrow compass, having been almost entirely granted away to private subjects. 1 Bl. Com. 286. 2 Steph. Com. 550. See Crown lands. To let go; to Kelham. De- (472) (473) rer, to stop, stay, or rest.] In pleading. To raise an objection in point of law, and rest or pause upon it, referring its decision to the court; to object to the pleading of the opposite party as insufficient to sustain his action or defence, and refer it to the judgment of the court whether it ought to be answered; in the language of the old books, to abide in law. "He which demurreth in law is said he that abideth in law-moratur or demoratur in lege." Co. Litt. 71 b. To "demur in law," to "demur in judgment,”" are phrases of constant occurrence in the old books. DEMURER, Demurrer, Demeurer. L. Fr. In old English law. To rest or stay; to abide or remain. Il fuit agard al' Flete, et la demurt tanques, &c.; he was awarded (sentenced) to the Fleet, and there remained until, &c. Yearb. T. 10 Edw.