FEOFFMENT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

FEOFFMENTAuthored

The Law Mind • 1461 words

Definition

The gift of a corporeal hereditament — that is, tangible, inheritable real property — accompanied by the physical transfer of possession (seisin) from one person to another. Feoffment was the oldest and most fundamental method of conveyancing under English common law. It required not a written instrument but an act: the feoffor (grantor) physically handed the feoffee (grantee) possession of the land, typically by a symbolic ceremony on the land itself — handing over a clod of earth, a twig, or a key — witnessed by those present. This ceremony was called livery of seisin.

Two senses of the term appear in the sources:

1. The act of giving: the transaction itself — the grant of a corporeal hereditament by delivery of possession, either by investiture (formal ceremony on the land) or by livery of seisin within view of the land.

2. The instrument of giving: the deed or written document that later came to accompany, record, or substitute for the ceremonial act, sometimes called a deed of feoffment.

The essential characteristic distinguishing feoffment from other common law conveyances is transmutation of possession — the immediate, actual passing of seisin. No feoffment was complete without it.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The grant of a feud or fee; a gift or conveyance in fee of land accompanied by actual delivery of possession; the instrument by which corporeal hereditaments are conveyed.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The grant of a feud or fee; the instrument or deed by which corporeal hereditaments are conveyed. Marked explicitly as obsolete in the United States and rare in England by 1913.

Both Webster's and Wiktionary track the legal meaning closely here, which is expected for a term that never developed a meaningful life outside law. The editorial note worth flagging: ordinary readers encountering the word in historical texts may read "feoffment" as a synonym for "deed" or "conveyance" in a generic sense, missing that the term originally described a specific method of transfer — one that depended on a physical act, not a written instrument. The document came later and was secondary.

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Common Confusion

FEOFFMENT vs. ENFEOFFMENT: These are functionally the same concept. Enfeoffment is the verbal or processual form (the act of enfeoffing); feoffment is the noun for the gift or the resulting transaction. Historical sources use them interchangeably, and researchers will find both in the same corpus.

FEOFFMENT vs. GRANT: As written conveyancing developed, "grant" came to describe transfer of incorporeal hereditaments (rights, reversions, easements), while feoffment remained technically linked to corporeal hereditaments transferred by livery of seisin. The distinction collapsed in practice as Statute of Uses (1535) and later the Statute of Frauds (1677) reshaped English conveyancing, but the older sources maintain it.

FEOFFMENT vs. ENFEOFFMENT TO USES: Beginning in the fifteenth century, feoffments were commonly made "to uses" — conveying land to a feoffee who held it for the benefit of a third party (the cestui que use). This is a distinct and historically important variation. Researchers encountering "feoffment to uses" are in equity and trust history, not simply land transfer doctrine. The Statute of Uses converted many such arrangements into legal estates, reshaping the entire structure of English property law.

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Core Elements

Because feoffment had a formal legal structure with recognized requirements, the elements are worth enumerating:

A feoffor (grantor): the person conveying the hereditament, who must hold seisin capable of being transferred.

A feoffee (grantee): the recipient. Anderson notes that because the personal qualities of the feoffee were often the inducement for the gift, the feoffee's right was originally not assignable without consent.

A corporeal hereditament: feoffment applied only to tangible, inheritable property capable of being physically possessed — land and things attached to it. Not available for incorporeal rights.

Words of gift: the operative word was traditionally "do" or "dedi" (I give or have given), though formula evolved.

Livery of seisin: the physical delivery of possession, either by investiture on the land or in view of it. This was not a formality — it was the transaction itself. Without it, no feoffment was complete.

Witnesses: the public, ceremonial character of livery of seisin meant witnesses were essential to establish the fact of transfer.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Feoffment with livery in deed: The feoffor and feoffee go onto the land and the ceremony of possession transfer occurs on-site.

Feoffment with livery in law: The parties stand within sight of the land and the feoffor declares the grant, with the feoffee subsequently entering. Valid if entry followed; the feoffee's failure to enter voided the transfer.

Feoffment to uses: The feoffor conveys land to a feoffee, who is to hold it for the benefit of a third party (the cestui que use). This form was the historical root of the English trust. The Statute of Uses 1535 executed many such uses, converting the equitable interest of the cestui que use into a legal estate.

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Why It Matters in Research

Feoffment is a dead conveyancing form in modern American and English law, abolished or superseded across jurisdictions by statute. But it saturates the historical corpus, and researchers encounter it in several distinct contexts:

Feudal and medieval land records: The term appears throughout early English land documents as the primary mechanism of land transfer. Understanding feoffment is prerequisite to reading any medieval property record with comprehension.

Equity and trust history: The feoffment to uses is the direct ancestor of the modern trust. Any researcher tracing the origins of trust law, the history of the Statute of Uses, or early Chancery jurisdiction will encounter this form repeatedly. The two threads — feoffment as conveyance and feoffment to uses as proto-trust — must be kept separate.

American colonial and early Republic sources: Feoffment appears in American materials well into the early nineteenth century, particularly in New England and in states following English common law closely. The term was live long enough that early American case reporters contain decisions analyzing its requirements.

Statutory displacement: The Statute of Frauds 1677 required written instruments for land transfers, which effectively merged the deed of feoffment into standard written conveyancing and stripped livery of seisin of its independent operative significance. Researchers working across the pre- and post-1677 divide will notice the shift in how "feoffment" is used — increasingly referring to the deed rather than the act.

Trap for the unwary: Historical sources sometimes describe a document as a "feoffment" when they mean only a written deed of grant, without implying the physical ceremony occurred or was required. Context must determine which sense controls.

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Historical Dictionary Support

The dictionary sources converge tightly on the core definition — gift of a corporeal hereditament by transmutation of possession, requiring passage of seisin — and all cite overlapping treatise authority (Watkins on Conveyancing, Washburn on Real Property). This consensus reflects a mature, well-settled common law concept rather than a contested one.

Black's (both editions) and Bouvier track the definition almost identically, emphasizing that seisin must pass and that this may occur by investiture or livery. Anderson adds the useful historical and etymological framing — linking feoffment to the gift of a feud and identifying the operative words — and notes the personal character of the early grant. Rapalje & Lawrence, in the excerpted portion, addresses the related term feodatory rather than feoffment directly, underscoring how tightly the feudal vocabulary clusters in this corner of the dictionary.

What the historical sources collectively underemphasize is the feoffment to uses, which receives only passing treatment despite its enormous doctrinal significance. Researchers relying solely on these dictionaries for trust and equity history will need to supplement with Maitland's Equity and the histories of Chancery jurisdiction.

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Jurisdictional Note

Feoffment and livery of seisin were abolished as operative conveyancing methods in England by the Real Property Act 1845, which made written deeds the sole valid method of land transfer. In the United States, the Statute of Frauds analogs enacted in virtually all states achieved the same result earlier in practice, though formal abolition varied by jurisdiction. The term survives in American law primarily as a historical category in land title chains and in trust law genealogy.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Law Mind Encyclopedia — Feudal Land Tenure
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Livery of Seisin
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Statute of Uses and the Origins of the Trust

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FEOFFMENTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

The gift of any corpo- real hereditament to another, (2 Bl. Comm. 310,) operating by transmutation of posses- sion, and requiring, as essential to its com- pletion, that the seisin be passed, (Watk. Conv. 183,) which might be accomplished either by investiture or by livery of seisin. 1 Washb. Real Prop. 33. Also the deed or conveyance by which such corporeal hereditament is passed. A feoffment originally meant the grant of a feud or fee; that is, a barony or knight's fee, for which certain services were due from the feoffee to the feoffor. This was the proper sense of the word; but by custom it came afterwards to signify also a grant (with livery of seisin) of a free inheritance to a man and his heirs, referring rather to the per- petuity of the estate than to the feudal tenure. 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 90, 91. It was for ages the only method (in ordinary use) for conveying the free- hold of land in possession, but has now fallen in great measure into disuse, even in England, hav- ing been almost entirely supplanted by some of that class of conveyances founded on the statute law of the realm. 1 Steph. Comm. 467, 468.

FEOFFMENTmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(509) FEODATORY, or FEUDATORY.- The tenant who held his estate by feudal service. -Termes de la Ley. FEODI FIRMA.-In old English law, fee farm (q. v.)

FEOFFMENTmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

1. The gift of a feud; infeudation. See FEUD. Enfeoff. To give a feud. Feoffor. The grantor of a feud. Feoffee. The grantee of a feud. 2. The gift of any corporeal hereditament,5 by delivery of possession upon or within view of the land.6 The most ancient method of conveyance. The aptest word was "do" or "dedi," I give or have given. As the personal abilities of the feoffee were the inducement, his estate was confined to his person, and subsisted for life. By a feoffment, later, a fee-simple was frequently created. With livery of seisin (q. v.), the feoffee had an estate at will. At present, land is transferred only by deed or will. 1 Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Humes, 115 U. S. 512 (1885). Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific R. Co., 118 U. S. 414 (1886). Boston, &c. R. Co. v. Briggs, 132 Mass. 26 (1882), cases. Sisk v. Crump, 112 Ind. 504 (1887); also Haughey v. Hart, 62 Iowa, 96 (1883). In general, 22 Cent. Law J. 196 (1886), cases. 2 Bl. Com. 310. 3 Ν. Η. 260. road bridge, being the continuation of the railroad tracks across a stream of water; it is not a grant of an exclusive ferry franchise. One may lawfully transport his own goods in his own boat where another has an exclusive right of ferry.10 A State may impose a license fee, directly or through a municipal corporation, upon the ferry1 A. S. ferian, to convey across, carry, go. 2 [Akin v. Western R. Co., 30 Barb. 310 (1857); Same v. Same, 20 N. Y. 376 (1859); Newton v. Cubitt, 12 C. В. *58 (1862); 14 Bradw. 381. Schuylkill Bridge Co. v. Frailey, 13 S. & R. *424 (1825); State v. Hudson, 23 N. J. L. 209 (1851). 4 [Mississippi Bridge Co. v. Lonergan, 91 III. 513 (1879); 23 id. 369; 2 Gilm. 169. 5 [Broadnax v. Baker, 94 N. C. 678 (1886), cases, Smith, C. J.; s. c. 55 Am. R. 633. Approved, Mayor of New York v. Starin, 106 N. Y. 11 (1887). * [People v. San Francisco, &c. R. Co., 35 Cal. 619 (1868). 7 Clarke v. State, 2 McCord, 48 (S. C., 1822). Attorney-General v. Boston, 123 Mass. 468 (1877), cases. 9 Mayor of New York v. New England Transfer Co., 14 Blatch. 168 (1877), cases. 10 Alexandria, &c. Ferry Co. v. Wisch, 73 Mo. 655 (1881). See also 3 Bl. Com. 219; 2 id. 37; 5 Cal. 470; 20 Geo. 529; 42 Me. 20; 11 Mich. 53; 58 Miss. 796; 20 Ν. Υ. 370; 77 Va. 218-19; 2 Dill. 332.

FEOFFMENTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The grant of a feud or fee. The instrument or deed by which corporeal hereditaments are conveyed. [Obs. in the U.S., Rare in Eng.]

feoffmentnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The grant of a feud or fee. | A gift or conveyance in fee of land or other corporeal hereditaments, accompanied by actual delivery of possession | The instrument or deed by which corporeal hereditaments are conveyed.

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