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of King Edward the First, as to the tenure of certain lands within the hundred of Kentbury, in Berkshire, that the same Roger Bigot, Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England, held XX libratas terræ by the service or serjeanty of Marshal in Hamstede. Librata terræ is said by some to contain four oxgangs of land, which would make in the whole fourscore oxgangs of land, or, as some say, librata terræ means land of the yearly value of twenty shillings of lawful money, which would be twenty pounds of the money in those days.—Note, That the Earl Marshal was created about a century afterwards by Richard the Second, who created Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, the first Earl Marshal.

It does not appear, therefore, that there is any precedent in point to the present case; but it should seem, that this dignity or office of Lord Great Chamberlain being held of the King's person, as King only, and not annexed to any honour, manor, land, or local inheritance whatever, is as much a personal dignity as the Earldom of Oxford, which it so long accompanied, though wholly independent of it. It has the same quality, viz. that of an honourable dignity. And why ought it not to have the same rule of descent as an earldom, or other personal dignity? Mr. Justice Dodridge says, "If it be a personal dignity, as is the earldom, if the earldom cannot be aliened, I know no reason that this should be aliened." Sir William Jones, 1 Vol. 124. and he observes,

That it may be said that this honourable office is an office of profit, for it hath sundry fees belonging to it, and therefore in respect of that it may be aliened; distinguendum est, where the profit is the principal, there perchance some alienation of the profits may be, especially in the special offices, where the fee is the principal thing regarded; but here this honourable service is the greater, and the fee is but concomitant, and an incident to the office, and the fee dieth with the officer.

If so, as it is fallen upon two female heirs, the King may suspend the right as he pleases, by granting it at his pleasure until it come again to a capable heir. If his Majesty should grant it to the petitioners, until Lady Willoughby of Eresby, or Lady Georgina Charlotte Bertie, should have issue capable of holding and exercising it, the intention of the original grant would probably be best answered, and such a grant seems to be most consistent with the [160] dignity of the office. The King must have been deceived in his grant, if it has the effect contended for by Mr. Burrell's petition, viz. that this high dignity or office has come to, and descended upon the eldest sister, and that Mr. Burrell, as her husband, is intitled to execute the same. The extent of this claim is not clearly defined. Does the right vest in Mr. Burrell and his lady as against the King? Or could he maintain an action against the King's grantee, for the fees or perquisites, if any be incident to the office? If he had a child born which lived but for a moment, would he be tenant by the curtesy of this inheritance? Had the eldest sister married one of the lowest order of the people, instead of a gentleman of so respectable a family as Mr. Burrell's, would this right be indefeazible; and must such a husband, at all events, execute this high and most honourable office? Surely this could not be the intention of the royal grant, nor the legal effect of that personal trust and confidence, to which this dignity or office owed its creation, and must owe its continuance. This would obtrude a perfect stranger upon the King, equally estranged from the blood of the grantee, as from the object of the grant.

The office of Great Chamberlain of England was confirmed by King Henry the Eighth by patent, in the first year of his reign, to John the 13th Earl of Oxford, and his heirs, who had been previously restored to his honours, dignities, and estates, by act of parliament the 1st of Henry the Seventh; and he accordingly exercised the office afterwards till his death. In the patent are recited the grants from King Henry the First, and Richard the Second, to the Earl's ancestors and their heirs: