Mortmain

Mortmain, so called by resemblance to a man in his last moments, who holds whatever he takes in his hand mortuo manu, that is, so fast that he never quits it until he is dead.

Plowden 193.

A term applied to denote the possession of lands or tenements by any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal. These purchases having been chiefly made by religious houses, in consequence of which lands became perpetually inherent in one dead hand, this has occasioned the general appellation of "mortmain" to be applied to such alienations.

2 Bl. Comm. 268; Co. Litt. 2b; Ersk. Inst. 2. 4. 10; Barr. Obs. St. 27, 97. See Story, Eq. Jur. § 1137; Shelf. Mortm.