FEOFF'MENT (infeudare), the oldest, and for a long period the only, method for the conveyance of land known in England. F. consisted in the formal conveyance of the land from the feoffor to the feoffee,, the former stating distinctly the,measure of the estate conferred, whether it was in fee, in tail, or for life. Where 'tuLinention of the duration of the estate was made, the gift was presumed to be for life. This conveyance of the land, in order to be complete; required to be accompanied by delivery of sasine (q.v.). Livery of sasine was of two kinds—viz., by deed, and in law. In the former case, the parties being actually upon the land, the feoffor, by delivery of a twig or a turf, testified his conveyance of the land. In livery in law, the parties being in sight of the land, the feoffor referring to the land gave possession to the feoffee. This mode of F. was ineffectual unless the feoffee entered into possession during the life of the feoffor. Livery in deed might be effected by attorney; but livery in law only by the parties themselves. In the earliest times, these ceremonies completed the conveyance. But by degrees the practice of embodying the transaction in a deed was introduced. When a. deed was used, it became customary, but not essential, to indorse on the deed the fact that livery of sasine had been made. By the statute of frauds (29 Car. II. c. 3), it was declared that no estate created by livery of sasine, unless accompanied by writing, signed by the party or his agent, should be of any effect, except as an estate at will; and by 8 and 9 Vict. c. 106, s. 3, a feoffment is void unless accompanied by deed. The law formerly gave' so great an effect to a feoffment, that even when the party ostensibly making the conveyance was not lawfully seized in the estate, the feoffment was sus tained. This was called a tortious conveyance; the party in whose favor it was made was said to have acquired an estate by wrong, the rightful owner was disseised, and was left to his right of entry (q.v.). But by the act last mentioned, this tortious effect
of a feoffment was removed. It must be observed that the practice of feoffment above described, and which has existed in England from time immemorial, differed materially from the old form of investiture in use in strictly feudal times, and from that which still prevails in Scotland. In England, the transaction was simply a conveyance by the actual holder of the land to a new tenant, testified by certain ceremonies, but requiring no confirmation by a third party to complete it. But by feudal usages, every holder of land was the vassal of some superior lord, to whom he owed suit and service, and with out whose consent he could not even part with his land; hence no conveyance was complete without the reception of a new tenant by the lord paramount as his vassal. In like manner, to this day, in Scotland, no transfer of heritage is complete without the formal confirmation of the superior; and although by recent legislation the old feudal usages, which for two centuries have existed as landmarks, telling us of a system now passed away, have been abolished, yet the fact of acceptance by the superior, and the performance of the pecuniary services attendant on that acceptance, are still preserved.
See INFEFTMENT, SASLNE, FEUDAL SYSTEM.
Feoffment to Uses.—This was an application of the feudal form of feoffment in Eng land in order to effect a conveyance in trust. The common law courts, adhering to feudal rules, refused to recognize any interest in the land but that of the person actually infeft; but where a F. was made to one man to the use of another, the equity courts gave effect to the transaction by compelling the party infeft to hold in trust for the third person, called the cestui que use, who was said to have an equitable estate, in contradis tinction to the legal estate which remained in the feoffee to uses. By the statute of uses, it was enacted that in all such conveyances the actual legal estate should pass to the cestui que use. See USES.