Copyhold

(Eng. Law) (a) A tenure of estate by copy of court roll; or a tenure for which the tenant has nothing to show, except the rolls made by the steward of the lord's court. Blackstone. (b) Land held in copyhold. Milton.

Note: Copyholds do not exist in the United States.

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A right to farm land given if the tenant was able to produce a copy of the relevant entry on the court roll.

Rack rents, or leasehold rents, in which the tenant pays an economic rent to the landlord, only became common across the country in the later 19th cent. Until then large parts of England, particularly in the north and west, had a variety of arrangements offering more (or less) security to the tenant. These included copyhold, customaryhold, lifeleasehold, three-life, and 99-year leases, which gave the tenant virtual rights of ownership. Copyhold literally meant ‘by copy of the court roll’, in other words by an agreement entered into the court rolls of the manor. By the 19th cent. the traditional rents were so out of line with real values that landlords sought to convert them to rack rents.

A medieval form of land tenure in England. A copyhold was a parcel of land granted to a peasant by a lord in return for agricultural services. The transaction was recorded on the rolls of the manor by the steward, who gave the tenant an authenticated copy of the recordation. Transfer of lands held by copyhold was achieved by surrender and admittance; that is, the copyholder surrendered his land to the baronial court and the steward admitted the person designated by the previous holder to the land by recording the transfer on the rolls and issuing a copy to the new tenant. Tenure was at the will of the lord, but in time the custom of the manor arising over many years gave the tenant a degree of security against arbitrary action by the lord. 57 Tenn. (10 Heisk) 621. Thus copyhold, though not originally entitling the holder to the absolute ownership characteristic of a freehold estate, came to represent a form of permanent tenure with rights of descent and alienability, while money rents or symbolic consideration were substituted for agricultural services. Copyhold was abolished in England in 1926. Moynihan, Introduction to the Law of Real Property 15 (3d ed. 2002).

Also used to refer generally to any form of land tenure other than a freehold.

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