Hen. VI, the possession of the
castle of Arundel was adjudged to confer an earldom on it's
possessor[p]. But afterwards, when alienations grew to be frequent,
the dignity of peerage was confined to the lineage of the party
ennobled, and instead of territorial became personal. Actual proof of
a tenure by barony became no longer necessary to constitute a lord of
parliament; but the record of the writ of summons to them or their
ancestors was admitted as a sufficient evidence of the tenure.

[Footnote o: Glanv. _l._ 7. _c._ 1.]

[Footnote p: Seld. tit. of hon. b. 2. c. 9. Sec. 5.]

PEERS are now created either by writ, or by patent: for those who
claim by prescription must suppose either a writ or patent made to
their ancestors; though by length of time it is lost. The creation by
writ, or the king's letter, is a summons to attend the house of peers,
by the stile and title of that barony, which the king is pleased to
confer: that by patent is a royal grant to a subject of any dignity
and degree of peerage. The creation by writ is the more antient way;
but a man is not ennobled thereby, unless he actually takes his seat
in the house of lords: and therefore the most usual, because the
surest, way is to grant the dignity by patent, which enures to a man
and his heirs according to the limitations thereof, though he never
himself makes use of it[q]. Yet it is frequent to call up the eldest
son of a peer to the house of lords by writ of summons, in the name of
his father's barony: because in that case there is no danger of his
children's losing the nobility in case he never takes his seat; for
they will succeed to their grand-father. Creation by writ has also one
advantage over that by patent: for a person created by writ holds the
dignity to him _and his heirs_, without any words to that purport in
the writ; but in letters patent there must be words to direct the
inheritance, else the dignity enures only to the grantee for life[r].
For a man or woman may be created noble for their own lives, and the
dignity not descend to their heirs at all, or descend only to some
particular heirs: as where a peerage is limited to a man, and the
heirs male of his body by Elizabeth his present lady, and not to such
heirs by any former or future wife.

[Footnote q: Co. Litt. 16.]

[Footnote r: Co. Litt. 9. 16.]

LET us next take a view of a few of the principal incidents attending
the nobility, exclusive of their capacity as members of p