ABEYANCE

from the French bayer , to expect, is that which is in expectation, remembrance, and intendment of law. By a principle of law, in every land there is a fee simple in some body, or else it is in abeyance ; that is, though for the present it be in no man, yet it is in expectancy belonging to him that is next to enjoy the land.— Inst. Thus if a man be patron of a church, and present eth a clerk to the same; the fee of the lands and tenements pertaining to the rectory is in the parson; but if the parson die, and the church be cometh void, then is the fee in abeyance , until there be a new parson presented, admitted, and inducted. For the frank tenement of the glebe of a parsonage, during the time the parsonage is void, is in no man; but in abeyance or expectation, belonging to him who is next to enjoy it.— Terms of the Law.