ESCHEAT, in English law, the reversion of lands to the next lord on the failure of heirs of the tenant. This rule is explained by the conception of a freehold estate as an interest in lands held by the freeholder from some lord, the king being lord paramount. (See ESTATE.) As there are now but a very few freehold estates traceable to any mesne or intermediate lord, escheats, when they do occur, fall to the king as lord paramount. Besides escheat for defect of heirs, there was formerly also escheat propter delic tum tenentis, or by thq corruption of the blood of the tenant through attainder consequent on conviction and sentence for the offence of treason or felony. The real estate, therefore, escheated to the next heir, subject to the superior right of the Crown to the forfeiture of the lands—in the case of treason for ever, in the case of felony for a year and a day. All this was abolished by the Felony Act, 187o, which provided for the appoint ment of an administrator to the property of the convict. Escheat was also an incident of copyhold tenure. Trust estates were not subject to escheat until the Intestates' Estates Act, 1884. (See EMINENT DOMAIN.) In most of the British colonies escheat has been abolished, and in England this was effected by the Law of Property Act, 1922 (Copyholds), and the Administration of Estates Act, In the United States, escheat, in the old English sense, existed in a few of the colonies before the Revolution ; it has existed since only so far as regulated by statute. It now means the death of an owner of an estate intestate, that is, without a will or heirs at law, in which case it becomes the property of the state. Public admin istrators have been named in certain states to take charge of such estates and sell them for the benefit of the state.