FEOFFMENT, Wrinent (OF. froffement, from feoffer, lieffer, jeffer, to enfeoff, from lief, lien, fen, fiat, fee, from .,11L. property held in fee, from 01IG. film, Ger. AS. fm-oh. Goth, foihn, cattle; connected with Lai. peens, Skt. post', cattle). The oldest, and for a long period the only. method for She e •yance of freehold land known in England. it was a cern. monial mode of eonveyance which rested mum and was derived from the primitive notion that an actual physical transfer of possession is es sential to the transfer of title. It consisted in the formal conveyanee of the land from the feoffor to the feoffee, the former slating distinctly the meas ure of the estate conferred. whether it was in fee, in tail, or for life. This conveyance of the land, in order to be complete, required to be accompanied by livery of seisin ('delivery of possession').
Livery of seisin was of two kinds—by deed, and in law. In the former ease, the parties being tie Inall• 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 feolfor, referring to the land, gave possession to the feoffee by indicating or describ ing the parcel to be conveyed. This mode of mak ing livery was ineffectual unh•ss the feoffee en tered 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 em bodying the transaction in a deed was introduced. When a deed was used it was customary to in dorse on the deed the fact that livery of seisin had been made. But it was still the livery and not the deed which effected the conveyance. By the Statute of Frauds (29 Car. IL. c. 3) it was de clared that no estate created by livery of seisin, unless accompanied by a writing signed by the party or his agent, should be of any effect, except as an estate at will, and by S and 9 Viet., c. 106,
3, a feoffmcnt is void unless accompanied by deed.
The law formerly gave so great an effect to a feoffment that even when the party osten sibly snaking the conveyance was not lawfully seized of the estate, the feoffment was sustained. This was called a tortious conveyance; the party in whose favor it was made was said to have ac quired an estate by wrong, the rightful owner was disseised, and was left to his right of entry (q.v.). But by the statute last mentioned this tortious effect of a feoffment was destroyed. The practice of feoffment above described, and which has existed in England from time im memorial. differed materially from the old form of investiture in use in strictly feudal times, and from that which still prevails in Scot land. In England the transaction was simply a conveyance by the actual holder of the land to a new tenant, attended by certain ceremonies. but requiring no confirmation by a third party to complete it. But by feudal usage every holder of land was the vassal of some superior lord, to whom he owed suit and service, and without whose consent he could not 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 a heritage is complete without formal confirmation by the superior; and although by recent legislation the old feudal usages have been abolished, yet. the fact of ac ceptance by the superior. and the performance of the pecuniary services attendant on that ac ceptance. are still preserved. See CONVEYANCE; FEE; FEUDALISM.