SEIGNORY, or SEIGNIORY (Fr. seigneur,

See also:

• LORD
• LORD (O. Eng. hldford, i.e. hldfweard, the warder or keeper of bread, hlIf, loaf; the word is not represented in any other Teutonic language)
• LORD, JOHN (1810-1894)

lord;

See also:

• LAT

Lat.

See also:

• SENIOR, NASSAU WILLIAM (1790-1864)

senior,

See also:

• ELDER (0. Eng. ellarn; Ger. Holunder; Fr. sureau)
• ELDER (Gr. 1rpev(3iTepos)

elder)  , in English law, the lordship remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee-simple . There is no land in England without its lord: " Nulle terre sans seigneur " is the old feudal maxim . Where no other lord can be discovered the crown is lord as lord paramount . The principal incidents of a seignory were an oath of fealty; a " quit " or " chief " rent; a " relief " of one year's quit rent, and the right of escheat . In return for these privileges the lord was liable to forfeit his rights if he neglected to protect and defend the tenant or did anything injurious to the feudal relation . Every seignory now existing must have been created before the Statute of Quia Emptores (1290), which forbade the future creation of estates in fee-simple by subinfeudation . The only seignories of any importance at present are the lord-ships of manors . They are regarded as incorporeal hereditaments, and are either appendant or in gross . A seignory appendant passes with the grant of the manor; a seignory in gross—that is, a seignory which has been severed from the demesne lands of the manor to which it was originally appendant—must be specially conveyed by deed of grant . Freehold land may be enfranchised by a conveyance of the seignory to the freehold tenant, but it does not extinguish the tenant's right of common (Baring v . Abingdon, 1892, 2 Ch . 374) .

By s . 3 (ii.) of the Settled Land

Act 1882, the tenant for life of a manor is empowered to sell the seignory of any freehold land within the manor, and by s . 21 (v.) the purchase of the seignory of any part of settled land being freehold land, is an authorized application of capital money arising under the act .