Definition
Rerefiefs (plural of rerefief) are inferior fiefs — subdivisions of a fief or feudal holding that a tenant-in-chief or intermediate lord has carved out and granted down to subordinate tenants. The term belongs to Scots feudal law and describes the layered subinfeudation characteristic of the feudal pyramid: a vassal who held land from a superior lord might himself grant portions of that land to others, creating a chain of dependent tenures. The recipients of rerefiefs stood at a lower rung of the feudal hierarchy, holding not directly from the crown or a great lord but from an intermediate grantor.
The term is nearly synonymous with rear-fief or arrière-fief in the broader common-law and civil-law feudal vocabulary.
Why It Matters in Research
Rerefiefs will appear almost exclusively in historical sources dealing with Scots feudal land tenure, particularly those predating the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, which ended feudal land holding in Scotland. Researchers tracing Scottish land titles, charter evidence, or feudal obligations in pre-modern records will encounter this term as a descriptor of subordinate grant relationships.
The principal research trap is conflating rerefiefs with the immediate grant from a superior lord. The rerefeif is not the primary grant — it is the derivative, downstream holding. A chain of title that passes through a rerefief requires the researcher to identify the intermediate grantor as well as the ultimate feudal superior.
Cross-referencing to Blackstone's Commentaries is warranted: both editions of Black's cite 2 Bl. Comm. 57, where Blackstone treats the structure of subinfeudated tenures in English and broader feudal context. That passage provides the conceptual scaffolding for understanding how rerefiefs functioned within the hierarchy of fiefs, even though Blackstone writes primarily in the English common-law tradition.
Because the term is largely confined to historical Scots law, researchers working in English feudal sources will rarely encounter "rerefief" specifically, but will find the underlying concept under the heading of subinfeudation or mesne tenure. The conceptual distinction between a tenant-in-chief, a mesne lord, and an inferior tenant maps directly onto the rerefief relationship.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary are in close agreement, defining rerefiefs as "inferior fiefs; portions of a fief or feud granted out to inferior tenants" and citing 2 Bl. Comm. 57. The second edition trims slightly but adds nothing substantively different. Neither edition elaborates on the procedural or documentary forms by which rerefiefs were constituted, nor on the specific incidents of tenure that attached to them — researchers needing that depth must go to Blackstone directly or to institutional writers on Scots law such as Stair or Erskine.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the abolition of the feudal system in Scotland, the distinctions in Scots law between different classes of tenure that could generate rerefiefs, or the practical consequences (in terms of relief, wardship, or other feudal incidents) that a rerefief relationship might carry. These gaps are consequential for anyone doing archival research in Scottish title deeds or sasine records.
Jurisdictional Note
Rerefiefs are a term of Scots feudal law. The underlying feudal tenure system they describe was formally abolished in Scotland by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (effective November 28, 2004). The term has no active legal significance in any modern jurisdiction; its relevance is historical and archival.