HEIRLOOM, strictly so called in English law, a chattel which by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. Any owner of such heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate it goes to his heir-at-law, and if he devises the estate it goes to the devisee. At the present time such heirlooms are almost unknown, and the word has acquired a secondary and popular meaning and is applied to furniture, pictures, etc., vested in trustees to hold on trust for the person for the time being entitled to the possession of a settled house. Such things are more properly called settled chattels. An heir loom in the strict sense is made by family custom, not by settle ment. A settled chattel may, under the Settled Land Act, 1882, be sold under the direction of the court, and the money arising under such sale is capital money. By the Law of Property Act, 1925, pt. iv., settlements of realty and personal property are assimilated.