tenure (tenur)

[ who is the owner of land in fee, which is the largest estate that a man can have in land, is not absolute owner; he owes services in respect of his fee (or fief), and the seigniory of the lord always subsists. All land in the hands any layman is held of some lord, to whom the holder or tenant owes some service; but in the case of church lands, although they are held by tenure, no temporal services are due, but the lord of whom these lands are held must be considered the owner, although the beneficial ownership can never revert to the lord. All the species of ancient tenures may be reduced to four, three of which still subsist: (1) tenure by knight -service, which was the most honorable (now abolished); (2) tenure in free socage, or by a certain and determinate service, which is either free and honorable or villein and base; (3) tenure by copy of court-roll, or copyhold tenure; (4) tenure in ancient de mesne. There was also tenure in frankalmoin , or by free alms. (See frankalmoin.) The tenure in free and common socage has absorbed most of the others. (See estate, tenant1, copyhold, socage, villeinage.) In Scots law the equivalent technical term is holding. And had not I ben, the comens wolde have brennyd his plase and all his tennuryes , wher thorough it coste my noune propr godes at that tyme more than vj. merks in mate and drynke. of Paston Letters , I. 133. IMG:content-0105.png:[blocks in formation] To ride in the lord's train, to go at the lord's bidding wherever he might will, to keep "head-ward" over the manor at nightfall, or horse-ward over its common field, to hedge and ditch about the demesne, or to help in the chase and make the "deer-hedge," were tenures by which the villagers held their lands, as well as by labor on the lord's land one day a week throughout the year, and a month's toil in harvest-time. J. R. Green, Conq. of Eng., p. 317. We served not in Cæsar's armies; we took not Cæsar's pay; we held no lands by the tenure of guarding Cæsar's frontiers. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 117. 3. Holding, or manner of holding, in general; the terms or conditions on which, or the period during which, anything is held. It is most absurd and ridiculous for any mortal man to look for a perpetual tenure of happine in his life. Burton , Anat. of Mel., p. 94. 4. Quality with respect to proportion of ingredients. The ores treated in this [Castilian] furnace ought never to contain more than 30 per cent. of metal, and, when richer, must be reduced to about this tenure by the addition of slags and other fluxes. Ure, Dict., III. 62. Barons by tenure. See baron, 1.-Base tenure. See copyhold, 1.- Cottier tenure. See cotterl. - Military tenure. See military. - Privity of tenure. See privity. - Tenure by divine service. See divine. - Tenure in aumone. See aumone. - Tenure of Office Act. (a) An act of the United States Congre , May 15th, 1820 (3 Stat. 582), prescribing that large cla es of public officers should be appointed for the limited term of four years and removable at pleasure. (b) An act of 1867 (14 Stat. 430; Rev. Stat. § 1767 et seq. ), providing that persons appointed to civil offices by the President, and confirmed by the Senate, excepting members of the cabinet, shall hold such offices until their succe ors are qualified, subject to suspension by the President, during the rece of the Senate, for misconduct; and that they can be removed only with the consent of the Senate. tenure-horn (ten'ūr-horn), п. A horn by the po e ion or exhibition of which certain estates were held. Compare tenure - sword. The "Bruce horn" of Savernake Forest, Wilts hire, and the "Tutbury horn" of Tutbury in Staff ords hire, England, have been exhibited at South Kensington.