An estate in land or other real property , of uncertain duration; that is,either of inheritance or which may possibly last for the life of the tenant at the least, (asdistinguished from a leasehold;) and held by a free tenure, (as distinguished from copyholdor villeinage.) Nevitt v. Woodburn, 175 111. 376, 51 N. E. 593; Railroad Co. v.Hemphill, 35 Miss. 22; Nellis v. Munson, 108 N. Y. 453, 15 N. E. 739; Jones v. Jones, 20 Ga. 700.Such an interest in lands of frank-tenement as may endure not only during theowner’s life, but which is cast after his death upon the persons who successivelyrepresent him, according to certain rules elsewhere explained.Such persons are called “heirs,” and lie whom they thus represent, the “ancestor.”When the interest extends beyond the ancestor’s life, it is called a “freehold ofinheritance,and, when it only endures for the ancestor’s life, it is a freehold not of inheritance.An estate to be a freehold must possess those two qualities: (1) Immobility, that is,the property must be either land or some interest issuing out of or annexed to laud;and (21 indeterminate duration, for, if the utmost period of time to which an estate canendure be fixed and detenuined, it cannot be a freehold. Wharton.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
