2 - Grants in fee: general

Summary

The two most important legal estates from the early twelfth century until the end of the medieval period were the holding in perpetual alms and the holding in fee and inheritance. Holdings in alms, which were limited to ecclesiastical and religious persons and bodies, are the subject of chapter 5. Holdings in fee and inheritance, which were available to clergy and laity alike, are the subject of the present chapter and the two which follow it. The present chapter is concerned with transfers of land and tenements by lay persons, seised in demesne, to other lay persons, for a freehold estate in fee and inheritance, called from the late thirteenth century an estate in fee simple to distinguish it from those which were subject to conditions or limitations of various kinds. By ‘seised in demesne’ is meant property which either was in the actual possession of a grantor, or else was held from him by persons who held no freehold estate and whose possession did not count as seisin for common law purposes, namely, villeins, who were personally unfree, and customary tenants who, although they were personally free, did not hold their land by freehold tenure. Chapter 3 is concerned with (a) transfers of seignories, that is, the rights which lords had in lands and tenements which were held from them by free tenants holding in fee, and of reversions, that is, the rights which lords had in lands and tenements which were held from them by free tenants holding for life or for terms of years; and (b) certain types of holding which merit special notice, namely fee farms, and transfers in fee made to and by religious houses and bodies.