Dictionary Definition
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English
Noun
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Extensive Definition
Seignory, or Seigniory (Fr.
seigneur, lord; Lat. senior, elder),
in English law,
the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of
an estate in fee-simple.
There is no land in England without its lord:
"Nulle terre sans seigneur" is the old feudal maxim. Where no other
lord can be discovered the Crown is
lord as lord paramount. The principal incidents of a seignory were
an oath of fealty; a
"quit" or "chief" rent; a "relief" of one year's quit rent, and the
right of escheat. In
return for these privileges the lord was liable to forfeit his
rights if he neglected to protect and defend the tenant or did
anything injurious to the feudal relation.
Every seignory now existing must have been
created before the Statute of Quia
Emptores (1290), which forbade the future creation of estates
in fee-simple by subinfeudation. The only
seignories of any importance at present are the lordships
of manors. They are regarded as incorporeal hereditaments, and are
either appendant or in gross. A seignory appendant passes with the
grant of the manor; a seignory in gross--that is, a seignory which
has been severed from the demesne lands of the manor to
which it was originally appendant--must be specially conveyed by
deed of grant.
Freehold land may
be enfranchised by a conveyance of the seignory to the freehold
tenant, but it does not extinguish the tenant's right of common
(Baring v. Abingdon, 1892, 2 Ch. 374). By s. 3 (ii.) of the Settled
Land Act 1882, the tenant for life of a manor is empowered to sell
the seignory of any freehold land within the manor, and by s. 21
(v.) the purchase of the seignory of any part of settled land being
freehold land, is an authorized application of capital money
arising under the act.
Related Links
seigniory in German: Lehnsherr
seigniory in French: Seigneur