Fee Farm

Land held of another in fee; that is, in perpetuity by the tenant and his heirs at a yearly rent, without fealty, homage, or other services than such as are specially comprised in the feoffment. Cowell. Fealty, however, was incident to a holding in fee farm, according to some authors. Spelman; Termes de la Ley. Land held at a perpetual rent. 2 Sharswood, Bl. Comm. 43.

Land held of another in fee, — that is, in perpetuity by the tenant and his heirs at a yearly rent, without fealty, homage, or other services than such as are specially comprised in the feoffment. Cowell. Fealty, however, was incident to a holding in fee-farm, according to some authors. Spelman. Gloss.; Termes de la Ley. Land held at a perpetual rent 2 Bla. Com. 43. “This term (fee-farm) has difficulties of its own, for it appears in many different guises. A feoffee is to hold in feoflrma, in feuflrmam, in fei flrmam, in feudo flrmam, in feudo flrma, ad flrmam feodalem, but most commonly pounded, both feoh (property) and feorm (rent). (But the latter seems to be derived from Low Latin, in which firma came to mean a fixed rent or tribute. Skeat, s. v. farm). So in the language of Prance, and in Norman documents, the term may be found in various shapes, flrmam fedium, feudi flrmam. But whatever may be the precise history of the phrase, to hold in fee-farm means to hold heritably at a rent. The fee, the inheritance, is let to farm. This term long struggled to maintain its place by the side of socage. The victory of the latter was not complete even in Bracton’s day. The complete merger of fee-farm in socage may be due to a statute of Edward I., though the way for it had long been prepared.’’ 1 P. & M. Hist. E. L. 293. It appears as a separate tenure in Magna Carta and in Bracton and Britton; in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries it became merged in socage. 3 Holdsw. Hist E. L. 46.

In English law. A tenure of lands in fee, at a certain farm or rent Fee-farm rent: the rent reserved on granting lands in feefarm; the amount of which must have been at least one-fourth of the value of the lands at the time of its reservation.

‘This isa species of tenure, where land is held of another in perpetuity at a yearly rent, without fealty, homage, or other services tian suchas are specially comprised in the feofiment. It corresponds very nearly to the “emphyteusis” of the Roman law. Fee-farm is where an estate in fee is granted subject to a rent in fee of at least one-fourth of the value of the lands at the time of its reservation. Such rent appears to be called “fee-farm” because a grant of.lands reserving so considerable a rent is indeed only letting lands to farm in fee-simple, instead of the usual method of life or years. 2 Bi. Comm. 48; t Steph, Comm. 676. Fee-farms are lands held in fee to render for them annually the true value, or more or less; so called because a farm rent is reserved upon agrant in fee. Such estates are estates of inheritance. They are classed among estates in fee-simple. No reversionary interest remains in the lessor, and they are therefore subject to the operation of the legal principles which forbid restraints upon alienation in all cases where no feudal relation exists between grantor and grantee. 6 N. Y. 467, 497.

[L.Yr.feeferme; L.Lat. feodi firma; literally, the farm of a fee.] In English law. Land held of another in fee, in consideration of an annual rent, and without homage, [fealty,] or any other services than were actually specified in the deed of feoffment by which the estate was created. Cowell. Britt. c. 66. 2 Inst, 44. But, according to Spelman and others, fealty was due in any case. Spelman, voc. Feodi firma. Termes de la ley, — An estate partaking of the character both of a lease (or /arm,) and a fee; or, in other words, an estate in fee, subject to a perpetual {farm or) rent, ffargr. Co. Litt.. Note 235, lib. 2. 2 Bl. Com. 4S. 2 Steph. Com. 27. See Feodi firma. In the old books, franchises are said to be granted in (to) fee farm. Britt. fol. 2. Stat. Westm. 1, c. 31.