The English jurist Edward Coke described the court in his The Compleate Copyholder (1644) as "the chief prope and pillar of a manor which no sooner faileth than the manor falleth to the ground".
Edward Coke, an English jurist, characterized the court system in his work "The Compleate Copyholder" (1644) as the "chief prope and pillar" of a manor. He asserted that if this institution faltered, the entire manor would collapse.