FEE, ESTATE IN, the largest estate in land in point of quantity of estate known to the law of England, being a freehold (q. v.) of inheritance. Estates in fee are divided into fee-simple and fee-tail. A fee-simple is defined by Littleton (1, a.) to be a lawful and pure inheritance. In order to create an estate in fee-simple by deed, it is necessary that the word heirs should be used; for a gift by deed to a man forever, or to a man and his assigns forever, creates only an estate for life. But words of perpetuity annexed to a gift to a man by will are construed as carrying an estate in fee. The proprietor of an estate in fee-simple enjoys the fullest rights of property over his estate, which he may alienate or burden at pleasure, and out of which he may grant estates of a lower kind, as for life or years. He is owner of the soil "a ado usque ad centrum," and is therefore entitled to every product of the land, as timber, etc., and to all minerals and other valuable productions found beneath the surface. On his death, the estate descends to his right heirs, except in the case of fees held by corporations, which descend to their successors in office. Where a man claims an estate in fee-simple in possessiod in a corporeal hereditament (q.v.), he is said to be "seized in his demesne as of fee." Estates in fee-simple are divided into fee-simple absolute, qualified or base, and condi tional. A qualified or base fee differs from a fee-simple absolute by having a qualifica tion annexed which may determine the estate, as where it is granted to a man and his heirs "tenants of the manor of Dale." If, therefore, at any time the holder of the estate ceases to be the tenant of Dale, the estate, which depended on that qualification, determines.
A conditional fee was limited to a particular class of heirs, to the exclusion of others, as to a man and the heirs-male of his body. On failure of heirs-male of the body of the grantee, an estate of this kind reverted to the grantor or his heirs. But although the
estate was thus limited, by the terms of the deed, to a particular series of heirs, the judges previous to the reign of Edward I. held that the gift was a fee-simple on condi tion of the birth of heirs of the body of the grantee, and that on the birth of an heir of the body, the condition on which the estate was held was purified. The estate did not indeed become ipso facto a fee-simple absolute, but the grantee was held entitled to sell the estate, to forfeit it for treason, and to burden it with ineumbrances. But if the estate was not sold, and descended to the heir, he continued to bold a fee-simple condi tional. This state of things led to the famous statute Dc Donis Conditionalibus (13 Ed. I. c. 1), whereby it was enacted that estates should be held secundum formam doni. Estates created by this statute were called estates in Sec ENTAIL.
The original mode of transferring an estate in fee was by feoffment (q.v.), but the statute of frauds (29 Char. II. c. 3) requiring that writing should be used in all transfers of land, estates in fee must now be conveyed by deed or will.
The proprietor of an estate in fee-simple in the present day is substantially absolute owner of the freehold, which he holds without owing duty or service to any one, except the allegiance due to the sovereign, who is regarded as supreme lord of all the lands in the kingdom. But originally this was not so; an estate in fee is in its nature a feudal benefice, a feud, and the owner of the fee held his estate subject to all the services inci dent to the feudal state. But these duties have been by degrees entirely abolished in England. See FEUDAL SYSTEM, TENURES. In Scotland, the feudal usages in regard to land are still retained to a very great extent. See Paterson's Compendium of English and Scotch Law. An estate in fee in Scotland must be held by one of the three existing tenures, viz., feu, blanch, or burgage, and is subject to the casualties (q.v.) attaching to these rights.