occaſions the primary diviſion of eſtates, into ſuch as are freehold, and ſuch as are leſs than freehold.
An eſtate of freehold, liberum tenementum, or franktenement, is defined by Britton[1] to be "the poſſeſſion of the ſoil by a free-man." And St. Germyn[2] tells us, that "the poſſeſſion of the land is called in the law of England the franktenement or freehold." Such eſtate therefore, and no other, as requires actual poſſeſſion of the land, is legally ſpeaking freehold: which actual poſſeſſion can, by the courſe of the common law, be only given by the ceremony called livery of ſeiſin, which is the ſame as the feodal inveſtiture. And from theſe principles we may extract this deſcription of a freehold; that it is ſuch an eſtate in lands as is conveyed by livery of ſeiſin; or, in tenements of an incorporeal nature, by what is equivalent thereto. And accordingly it is laid down by Littleton[3], that where a freehold ſhall paſs, it behoveth to have livery of ſeiſin. As therefore eſtates of inheritance and eſtates for life could not by common law be conveyed without livery of ſeiſin, theſe are properly eſtates of freehold; and, as no other eſtates were conveyed with the ſame ſolemnity, therefore no others are properly freehold eſtates.
Estates of freehold then are diviſible into eſtates of inheritance, and eſtates not of inheritance. The former are again divided into inheritances abſolute or fee-ſimple; and inheritances limited, one ſpecies of which we uſually call fee-tail.
1. Tenant in fee-ſimple (or, as he is frequently ſtiled, tenant in fee) is he that hath lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to hold to him and his heirs for ever[4]; generally, abſolutely, and ſimply; without mentioning what heirs, but referring that to his own pleaſure, or to the diſpoſition of the law. The true meaning of the word fee (feodum) is the ſame with that of feud or fief, and in it's original ſenſe it is taken in contradiſtinction to
