especially under the Norman kings. The theory grew up that all the
public land in the kingdom was the king's waste, and that all
landholders were the king's tenants. Similarly in every township the
common land was the lord's waste and the landholders were the lord's
tenants. Thus the township became transformed into the manor. Yet even
by such a change as this the townsmen or tenants of the manor did not in
England lose their self-government. "The encroachments of the lord," as
Sir Henry Maine observes, "were in proportion to the want of certainty
in the rights of the community." The lord's proprietorship gave him no
authority to disturb customary rights. The old township-assembly
partially survived in the Court Baron, Court Leet, and Customary Court
of the Manor; and in these courts the arrangements for the common
husbandry were determined.

This metamorphosis of the township into the manor, however, was but
partial: along with it went the partial metamorphosis of the township
into the parish, or district assigned to a priest. Professor Stubbs has
pointed out that "the boundaries of the parish and the township or
townships with which it coincides are generally the same: in small
parishes the idea and even the name of township is frequently, at the
present day, sunk in that of the parish; and all the business that is
not manorial is despatched in vestry-meetings, which are however
primarily meetings of the township for church purposes." [7] The parish
officers, including overseers of the poor, assessors, and way-wardens,
are still elected in vestry-meeting by the freemen of the township. And
while the jurisdiction of the manorial courts has been defined by
charter, or by the customary law existing at the time of the manorial
grant, "all matters arising outside that jurisdiction come under the
management of the vestry."