FREEBENCH, in English law, the interest which a widow had in the copyhold lands of her husband, corresponding to dower in the case of freeholds. It depended upon the custom of the manor, but as a general rule the widow took a third for her life of the lands of which her husband died seised, but it might be an estate greater or less than a third. Freebench disappeared with the abolition of copyhold tenures by the Law of Property Act 1922 and the Administration of Estates Act 1925.