and to farm ſet; dimiſi, conceſſi, et ad firmam tradidi." Farm, or feorme, is an old Saxon word ſignifying proviſions[1]: and it came to be uſed inſtead of rent or render, becauſe antiently the greater part of rents were reſerved in proviſions; in corn, in poultry, and the like; till the uſe of money became more frequent. So that a farmer, firmarius, was one who held his lands upon payment of a rent or feorme: though at preſent, by a gradual departure from the original ſenſe, the word farm is brought to ſignify the very eſtate or lands ſo held upon farm or rent. By this conveyance an eſtate for life, for years, or at will, may be created, either in corporeal or incorporeal hereditaments: though livery of ſeiſin is indeed incident and neceſſary to one ſpecies of leaſes, viz. leaſes for life of corporeal hereditaments; but to no other.
Whatever reſtrictions, by the ſeverity of the feodal law, might in times of very high antiquity be obſerved with regard to leaſes; yet by the common law, as it has ſtood for many centuries, all perſons ſeiſed of any eſtate might let leaſes to endure ſo long as their own intereſt laſted, but no longer. Therefore tenant in fee-ſimple might let leaſes of any duration; for he hath the whole intereſt: but tenant in tail, or tenant for life, could make no leaſes which ſhould bind the iſſue in tail or reverſioner; nor could a huſband, ſeiſed jure uxoris, make a firm or valid leaſe for any longer term than the joint lives of himſelf and his wife, for then his intereſt expired. Yet ſome tenants for life, where the fee-ſimple was in abeyance, might (with the concurrence of ſuch as have the guardianſhip of the fee) make leaſes of equal duration with thoſe granted by tenants in fee-ſimple: ſuch as parſons and vicars with conſent of the patron and ordinary[2]. So alſo biſhops, and deans, and ſuch other ſole eccleſiaſtical corporations as are ſeiſed of the fee-ſimple of lands in their corporate right, might, with the concurrence and confirmation of ſuch perſons as the law requires, have made leaſes for years, or for life, eſtates in tail, or in fee, without any limitation or controll.
