AND TENANT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

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Definition

"And tenant" is a phrase appearing in the formal granting clause of a traditional common law lease. It functions as part of a formulaic sequence used to identify the lessee (tenant) as a party to the demise. In older conveyancing practice, a lease would name the lessor, the lessee, and then employ operative words of grant — typically "demise, grant, lease, and to farm let" — followed by language identifying what the tenant received and on what terms. The phrase "and tenant" in this context signals the relational status of the grantee: the party who takes possession of the demised premises in exchange for rent or other consideration.

The term has no independent substantive legal force; it is architectural language within a lease instrument, identifying role rather than conferring or limiting rights.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering "and tenant" in historical lease instruments or reported cases should recognize it as part of a formal conveyancing formula rather than a term of art with discrete legal content. Its significance is structural: the presence or absence of proper operative words in a lease — including correct identification of the parties as lessor and lessee — bore directly on whether an instrument created a valid tenancy, a mere license, or something else entirely.

In nineteenth-century American practice (reflected in the Bouvier citations to New York, New Hampshire, and Maryland reporters), courts scrutinized lease language carefully to determine whether a valid demise had been created. A defectively worded granting clause could affect the nature of the interest conveyed, the availability of remedies such as distress for rent, and the right to enforce covenants running with the land.

When researching historical leases, pay attention to the full operative clause in which "and tenant" appears. Variant phrasing across jurisdictions and time periods — "demise and lease," "let and to farm let," or abbreviated commercial forms — may affect how courts characterized the transaction. Researchers moving from historical instruments into modern doctrine should note that contemporary leases largely abandon this formal vocabulary; modern instruments typically identify parties by defined terms ("Landlord" and "Tenant") at the outset, making the classical granting-clause formula obsolete in practice.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's Law Dictionary treats "and tenant" not as a freestanding entry but as an element of the formal lease structure. Bouvier identifies six components of a well-drawn lease, with the operative words — "demise, grant, lease, and to farm let" — constituting the fifth. The phrase "and tenant" emerges from this framework as the relational label attached to the lessee within that structure.

Bouvier's treatment is consistent with the broader common law conveyancing tradition codified in English practice and carried into American jurisdictions. The historical dictionaries do not disagree on this point, but they also do not isolate "and tenant" as a term requiring independent analysis — it is subsumed within the larger discussion of lease formalities. What Bouvier and similar sources underemphasize is the degree to which American courts in the mid-to-late nineteenth century were already relaxing strict insistence on formal operative words, treating the parties' intent and conduct as increasingly determinative of tenancy status.

Jurisdictional Note

The formal granting-clause requirements for leases varied in their strictness across American jurisdictions. States with strong equity traditions were more willing to enforce informally worded instruments as leases; others adhered longer to common law formalism. The New York, New Hampshire, and Maryland authorities cited in Bouvier reflect that American courts were actively working through these questions in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

AND TENANTmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

Fifth, the operative words of the lease are usually "demise, grant, lease, and to farm let; 50 N. Y. 414; 53 N. H. 513; 27 Md. 173. Sixth, the descrip- tion of the premises need not specify all the particulars of the subject-matter of the de- mise, for the accessories will follow the principal thing named: thus, the garden is parcel of a dwelling-house, and the general description of a farm includes all the houses and lands appertaining to the farm; 9 Conn. 374; 11 C. E. Green 82; 4 Rawle 330; 9 Cow. 747; 72 Mich. 438; 41 N. H. 337; and a building includes the land on which it stands; 37 Minn. 4. But whether certain premises are parcel of the demise or not is always matter of evidence; 14 Barb. 434; B. & C. 870; 14 B. Mon. 8. Seventh, the rights and liabilities of the respective par- ties are regulated by law in the absence of any particular agreement in respect there- to; but express covenants are usually in- serted in a lease, for the purpose of limiting or otherwise defining their rights and duties in relation to repairs, taxes, insurance re- newals, residence on the premises, modes of cultivation, fixtures, and the like. Certain covenants are also implied in law from the use of certain technical terms in leases. The intention of the parties to a lease must be gathered from the instrument taken as a whole; 83 Va. 319. provements, or the subject-matter of demise wholly perishes or is turned into a house of ill-fame: 29 Barb. 116; 119 Mass. 28:46 Ν. Υ. 297; 38 Mo. 143; 58 Pa. 271; 118 Mass. 125; 38 Cal. 259; 5 Ohio 303. A lessor who knows that the premises are to be used for gambling cannot recover rent; 62 III. App. 134. The same result will follow when the tenant purchases the fee, or the fee de scends to him as heir at law; for in either case the lease is merged in the inheritance; since there would be a manifest inconsist- ency in allowing the same person to hold two distinct estates immediately expectant on each other, while one of them includes the time of both, thus uniting the two op- posite characters of landlord and tenant; 2 C. & P. 317; 26 III. 19; 6 Johns. Ch. 417; 13 Pa. 16; Tayl. L. & T. § 502. A lease of land is not terminated by the death of the lessee, but an action will lie against his ad- mistrator for rent during the remainder of the term; 69 Miss. 664. A provision in a lease that the lessee may buy the land" at the option of the parties" means that the lessee may buy at his own option; 30 Atl. Rep. (Vt.) 686. The general rule that a deed cannot be varied by parol applies to leases, and it has been enforced with respect to their date; 8 Scott, N. R. 48; the amount of the rent; 1 Man. & Gr. 589; the contemporaneous grant of rights and privileges inconsistent with the terms of the lease; 19 Cal. 854; 17 La. Ann. 153; time of payment of rent: 7 Blackf. 308; that the lessee agreed to pay taxes; 6 Ves. Jr. 334, n.; or that the lessor, at the time of the lease, agreed to repair; 2 E. D. Sm. 248; though a subse- quent agreement for a consideration may be proved: 5 Sandf. 542; 67 N. W. Rep. (Minn.) 1026; but an allegation that the lessee was induced to occupy the premises by the lessor's promise to put in fixtures, made after the execution of the lease, does not show such consideration; 32 S. W. Rep. (Tex.) 426. See as to this rule, gener- In every well-drawn lease, provision is made for a forfeiture of the term in case the tenant refuses to pay rent, commits | ally, and the exceptions to it, PAROL EVI- waste, or is guilty of a breach of the cove- nant to repair, insure, reside upon the prem- ises, or the like. This clause enables the lessor or his assigns to re-enter in any such event upon the demised premises and eject the tenant, leaving both parties in the saine condition as if the lease were a nullity; but in the absence of a proviso for re-entry the lessor would possess no such power, the mere breach of a covenant enabling him to sue for damages only; 3 Wils. 127; 2 Cow. 591; 2 Overton 233; 1 Dutch. 285; 15 Cal. 233. The forfeiture will generally be en- forced by the courts, except where the landlord's damages are a mere matter of computation and can be readily compen- sated by money; 7 Johns. 235; 4 Munf. 332; 2 Price 200; 44 Vt. 285; 9 Hare 683; 5 R. I. 144; 60 Pa. 131; 20 Vt. 415; 31 Conn. 468; 40 Ν. Η. 434. One condition essential to the forfeiture of a lease by the lessor is a demand of the rent; 140 U. S. 25; 35 Neb. 766. But in case of a forfeiture for the non-payment of rent, the proviso is allowed to operate simply as a security for rent, and the tenant will be relieved from its effects at any time by paying the landlord or bringing into court the amount of all arrears of rent, with interest and costs. The right to terminate the lease for the non-payment of rent will not give the lessee any right to avoid the lease or his liability for agreed rent; 150 U.S. 665; 11 Tex. Civ. App. 701. Where under a provision in a lease that if the lessee keeps all its conditions he may purchase

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