This court will upon a writ of error take judicial notice of all private customs in private places; for they below are as much bound to proceed upon their customs as the Judges here upon the common law. Case 104. Anonymous 11 Mod 68

How that which may be claimed by all the inhabitants of England can be the subject of a custom, I cannot conceive. Customs must in their nature be confined to individuals of a particular description, and what is common to all mankind, can never be claimed as a custom.

[A]ll customs which are against the common law of England, ought to be taken strictly, nay very strictly, even stricter than any Act of Parliament that alters the common law. It is a general rule, that customs are not to be enlarged beyond the usage; because it is the usage and practice that makes the law in such cases, and not the reason of the thing, for it cannot be said that a custom is founded on reason, though an unreasonable custom is void; for no reason, even the highest whatsoever, would make a custom or law; so it is no particular reason that makes any custom law, but the usage and practice itself, without regard had to any reason of such usage; and therefore you cannot enlarge such custom by any parity of reason, since reason has no part in the making of such custom … but the law allows usage in particular places to supersede the common law, and is the local law, which is never to be extended further than the usage and practice, which is the only thing that makes it law.