It was a
reality much later than that, as several cases in the books will show.
Dyer, who was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1559,
settled several in which man claimed property in his fellow-man, hearing
arguments and giving judgment on the point whether one should be a "villein
regardant" or a "villein in gross." Lord Campbell, in his _Lives of the
Chief Justices_, gives the following, tried before Dyer, _C.J._:

"A. B., seised in fee of a manor to which a villein was regardant, made
a feoffment of one acre of the manor by these words: 'I have given one
acre, &c., and further I have given and granted, &c., John S., my
villein.' Question, 'Does the villein pass to the grantee as a villein
in gross, or as a villein appendant to that acre?' The Court being
equally divided in opinion, no judgment seems to have been
given."--_Dyer_, 48 b. pl. 2.

Another action was brought before him under these circumstances:--Butler,
Lord of the Manor of Badminton, in the county of Gloucester, contending
that Crouch was his villein regardant, entered into certain lands, which
Crouch had purchased in Somersetshire, and leased them to Fleyer. Crouch
thereupon disseised Fleyer, who brought his action against Crouch, pleading
that Butler and his ancestors were seised of Crouch and his ancestors as of
villeins regardant, from time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the
contrary. The jury found that Butler and his ancestors were seised of
Crouch and his ancestors until the first year of the reign of Henry VII.;
but, confessing themselves ignorant whether in point of law such seisin be
an actual seisin of the defendant, prayed the opinion of the Court thereon.
Dyer, _C.J._, and the other judges agreed upon this to a verdict for the
defendant, for "the lord having let an hundred years pass without redeeming
the villein or his issue, cannot, after that, claim them." (_Dyer_, 266.
pl. 11.)

When Holt was chief justice of the King's Bench, an action was tried before
him to recover the price of a slave who had been sold in Virginia. The
verdict went for the plaintiff. In deciding upon a motion made in arrest of
judgment, Holt, _C.J._, said,--"As soon as a negro comes into England he is
free: one may be a villein in England, but not a slave." (_Cases temp.
Holt_, 405.)

As to the period at which villenage in England became extinct, we find in
_Litt_. (sec. 185.):--

"Villenage is sup