Homestead

The house and land constituting a family residence. 6 N. D. 482. "'Stethe or sted,' says Lord Coke, 'betokeneth properly a bank of a river, and many times a place.'

Co. Litt. 4, 6.

The homestead, according to that definition, means the home place, the place where the house is, and such is its legal acceptation at the present day. It is the home, the house, and the adjoining land, where the head of the family dwells; the home farm."

36 N. H. 158.

The principal importance of the term is in respect to the exemption of the homestead from execution, and the nature and extent of such exemption is regulated in each state by the statutes allowing the same. As a general rule, to constitute a homestead within the exemption laws the property must be actually occupied. (11 Allen [Mass.] 37; 51 Mich. 541; 23 Minn. 435) as a residence (27 Ill. 393) by the head of a family (10 Allen [Mass.] 425; 159 Ill. 148) who has a present possessory interest in the property (170 Ill. 115; 74 Iowa, 683), with the intention of making such property a homestead (6 Cal. 234; 53 Vt. 554).