Widow Bench - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: widow benchWidow-Bench
Widow-Bench, the share of her husband's estate which a widow is allowed besides her jointure...
Free-bench
Free-bench [sedes libera, Lat.], a widow's dower out of copyholds to which she was entitled by the custom of some manors. It is regarded as an excrescence growing out of the husband's interest, and is indeed a continuance of his estate.The term free-bench is equally applicable to the estate which, by the custom of some manors, a husband takes in his wife's copyhold lands after her death, and anciently it was indiscriminately applied to that and to the widow's dower, but now the estate of the husband is called his curtesy, while the term free-bench is confined to the widow.Since free-bench is only claimable by special custom, the estate which a widow is to take, both as to its quantity, quality, and duration, must be such as the custom prescribes. It is generally a third for her life, as at Common Law, but it is sometimes a fourth part only, and sometimes but a portion of the rent. In many manors the wife takes the whole for her life, in others she takes the inheritance.Frequently the c...
Copyhold
Copyhold. Tenure in copyhold has been abolished under the (English) L.P. Acts, 1922 and 1925, and the Amending Acts of 1924 and 1926, but the greater part of the former title on this subject has been retained verbatim in view of the importance of the subject in examining titles. In the previous edition of this work, copyhold was described as a base tenure founded upon immemorial custom and usage; its origin is undiscoverable, but it is said to be the ancient villeinage modified and changed by the commutation of base services into specified rents, either in money or money's worth.A copyhold estate is a parcel of the demesnes of a manor held at the lord's will, and according to the custom of such manor. The tenant may have the same quantities of interest in this tenure as he may enjoy in freeholds, as an estate in fee-simple or (by particular custom) fee-tail, or for life, and he may have only a chattel interest of an estate for years in it. By the custom of some manors, the estate devol...
Magna Carta
Magna Carta, [Latin 'great charter'] The English charter that King John granted to the barons in 1215 and Henry III and Edward I later confirmed. It is generally regarded as one of the great common-law documents and as the foundation of constitution liberties. The other three great charters of English Liberty are the Petition of Right (3 Car. (1628)), the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2 (1679)), and the Bill of Rights (1 Will. SM. (1689)). Also spelled Magna charta, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 963.This Great Charter is based substantially upon the Saxon Common Law, which flourished in this kingdom until the Normaninvasion consolidated the system of feudality, still the great characteristic of the principles of real property. The barons assembled at St.Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, in the later part of the year 1214, and there solemnly swore upon the high alter to withdraw their allegiance from the Crown, and openly rebel, unless King John confirmed by a formal charter the ancient li...
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