On the making of such grants the patentees became the mesne lords, holding ofthe King, and the grantees of the patentees were the tenants paravail ( so called because ihey have the avails or prnjits of the land), holding by license from the King as lord paramount, of their immediate lords the patentees. The statute would prevent any further subinfeudations, by the freeholders holding under the patentees, unless, indeed, the King and patentees should both consent.

"That this was the understanding of the crown lawyers who prepared the patents for lands in the Colonies, is evident from the terms of several Colonial grants. The charter of Pennsylvania empowered Penn, the patentee, to erect manors and to alien and grant parts of the lands to such purchasers as might wish to purchase, " their heirs and assigns, to he htld of the said WiUiam Penn, his heirs and assigns, by such serv'ices, customs and rents as should seem fit to the said William Penn, etc.. and not immediately of ihe said King Charles, his heirs or successors," notwithstanding the statute of quia emptores (I. Wheaton 348 ; 9 Wheaton 25(j). . . .

"The records of some ten or twelve patents exist in the office of the Secretary of State, issued respectively in the reigns of James II., William and Mary, Anne, and George I., and the earlier government of the Duke of York [among which are those of Scarsdale, Fhilipsburgh, Fordham, Pelham, Cortlandt, and Morrisania, in W-.s'chester County'], with powers respecting a manor and Manor Courts similar to those under consideration [the English manor grants of Rensselaer swyck]; and the proprietary charters of several of the Colonies authorize grants to be made to hold ofthe proprietaries. If the statute against subinfeudations was in force in the colonies, these proprietary grants were as much violations of its provisions as the grants in question or any other grants from the King.