Freehold, ESTATE OF

Freehold, ESTATE OF (liberum tenementum, 'frank tenement'). Tenures of land in England are divided into free and base or customary. Free tenures included the military tenures of knight-service (see TENURE), &c., now abolished, and tenure in free and common soccage (q.v.), which is now the only form of lay freehold. Copyhold (q.v.) is now the only form of customary tenure; it is hardly correct to speak of base tenure, since the personal incidents of villeinage have disappeared. 'Customary freehold,' so called, is only a privileged kind of copyhold. There is no necessary connection between the tenure and the quantity of the tenant's interest in the land; but in point of fact only an estate for life or an estate of inheritance ranks as a freehold; a term of years, however long, is less than freehold. Lands may be held by free tenure of the king or of the lord of a manor, but no new free tenure under a subject has been created since 1290, when the practice of subinfeudation was abolished by the statute of Quia emptores. At the present day almost all freeholders hold of the crown. Seisin or possession of the freehold was formerly an important point in the law of wills, conveyances, and actions relating to land. The freeholders of a county were constituent members of the ancient county court; they had formerly the right to vote in the election of county coroners; and freehold property of the value required by modern statutes is a qualification for jurymen and parliamentary electors, and for certain public offices. Rent-charges and other interests in land may be held in freehold.