feoffment Law.
(ˈfɛfmənt)
Forms: 4–6, 9 dial. feff(e)ment, (5 feefe-, fef(e)ment), feoffament, 5, 9 dial. feftment, 6–7 feoffe-, feof(e)ment, 6– feoffment.
[a. AF. feoffement; see feoff v. and -ment.]
1. The action of investing a person with a fief or fee. In technical lang. applied esp. to the particular mode of conveyance (originally the only one used, but now almost obsolete) in which a person is invested with a freehold estate in lands by livery of seisin (at common law generally but not necessarily evidenced by a deed, which however is now required by statute).
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 254 Edward..salle gyue Philip þe Kyng Alle holy Gascoyn..After þe forty dayes of þat feffement, Philip..salle gyue [etc.]. 1439 E.E. Wills (1882) 118 By wey of graunt or feeffement. 1440 Promp. Parv. 153 Fefement, feofamentum. 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 475 Item, to go throw wyth the feffement of my lordes of Norffolke. 1531 Dial. on Laws Eng. i. xxi. (1638) 39 He that hath the estate, may lawfully..make a feoffement thereof. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 25 Feoffment..is the most ancient and necessary Conveyance which is used by the Common Law. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. ii. xx. 311 By the mere words of the deed the feoffment is by no means perfected. 1875 Poste Gaius ii. Comm. (ed. 2) 172 The essence of a feoffment is livery of seisin. |
b. spec. (more fully) feoffment in, of, upon, trust; feoffment to uses: see feoff v. 1 b.
| 1489 Plumpton Corr. 70 A feoffament of trust indented made by your mastership unto me. 1490 Ibid. 97 William Plompton..shewed to me a copy of astate & feftment, mad by my master..to certaine feofes, to his beofe [= to his own use] of lands..for terme of his lyfe. 1538 Leland Itin. IV. 14 To whom he left his Land in Feoment withowt Declaration of Wylle to any use. 1552 Huloet, Feofment of trust, fidei commissum. 1606 Holland Sueton. §23. 165 The iurisdiction as touching feofments upon trust. 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. (1818) II. 58 This feoffment was judicially suppressed..Feb. 13, 1633. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. vi. 344 The practice of feoffments to uses. |
c. dial. An endowment.
| 1561 Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 151, I will that all suche feoffaments and annuities as I have made unto Symonde..Askwithe shall stand according to th' effecte of my graunte thereof maide. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Feftments, portions of property belonging to an endowment. |
d. deed of feoffment: The instrument or deed by which corporeal hereditaments are conveyed.
| 1545–6 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 252 Hys dede of feoffement. 1616 B. Jonson Devil an Ass iv. iii, He..ha's caused A deed of feoffment..To be drawne yonder. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 79 By the custom of gavelkind, an infant of fifteen years may by one species of conveyance (called a deed of feoffment) convey away his lands in fee simple. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. II. xxiv. 111 The lower province was granted by two deeds of feoffment. |
† 2. = 1 d. Obs.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 72 Symonye and cyuile..vnfoldeth þe feffement. 14.. Plumpton Corr. 46 My nephew..shewed to me a wyll made upon a feftment. 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 7 Forg'd Feofments. |
3. The fief conferred.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 249 Fo [v.r. To] wild þe feffementes ald & þei granted þertille. |