Rent charge ; when the rent was created by deed, no fealty was annexed and consequently there could be no distress in case of non-jjayment ; hence an express power of distress was inserted in the deed to cure the difficulty. I A rent so reserved was said to be charged with a distress, and hence called a rent charge. 3. Rent seek, or dry or barren rent ; this was simply a rent for the recovery of which no power of distress was given by the common law, or by the agreement of the parties. -

All three kinds were used, but the first or rent service was that generally reserved in manor leases in New York. The leases themselves were granted for terms of years of longer or shorter periods, with covenants of renewal, or without, as the parties could agree. Usually they were for long terms, and sometimes they were made in perpetuity, in which latter case they were called fee-farm leases, and the rents fee-farm rents. In the Westchester County Manors there was great latitude in the character of the lease holds. The Lords and their Tenants were bound by no hard and fa.st rules, and made just such agreements with each other as they saw fit. Sometimes the right to purchase the fee by the tenant upon terms was inserted in the leases. But it was the custom generally to sell the reversion of the fee to the tenant, whenever it was desired and the parties could agree upon the terms of the purchase. These leaseholds were devisable by will, and divisible, with the lord's assent, into parts in the lessee's lifetime. This made it easy for tenants to retain their farms in their families from father to son if they wished, or to divide up a