Terre-Tenant
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
The holder of land; the person who is in actual possession or occupation of land. Sometimes the term is used in a more technical sense, signifying he who is seised of land, though not personally occupying any part of it. It is sometimes spelled ter-tenant, but unadvisably. The terre-tenant is he who hath the actual possession of the land; for example, a lord of a manor has a freeholder, who letteth out his freehold to another, to be possessed and occupied by him, such other is called the ter-tenant. Jacob. The terre-tenant is he who is literally in the occupation or possession of the land, as distinguished from the mere owner of the same. The phrase also denotes sometimes the owner of the legal estate, e.g. the trustee's estate; and in that sense, although the cestui que trust should die without heirs, the lands will not escheat to the lord for want of a tenant (per defectum sanguinis), for the trustee is the terre-tenant. (Burgess v. Wheate, 1 Eden, 177.) Brown.