Freehold

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In Anglo-American law, ownership of a substantial interest in real property (see real and personal property) held for an indefinite period. The term originally designated the owner of an estate held in free tenure, who possessed, under the Magna Carta, the rights of a free man. Today a freehold is distinguished from a leasehold, a contract to hold real property for a specified period. See also copyhold, fee, landlord and tenant.

For more information on freehold, visit Britannica.com.

Legal estate in land, giving the owner the right to hold the property for life, passing it down to his or her legal heirs. There are three types of freehold estates: Life Estate, an estate limited to the life of the holder; fee simple, an estate without any restrictions; and fee tail, an estate inherited by the donor's direct descendants. Contrast with Leasehold.

An interest in Real Estate without a predetermined time span.
Example: A Fee Simple or a Life Estate is considered a freehold estate because there is not a specified time limit. A Lease is less than freehold because it has a specified termination date.

1. A form of tenure of property held in fee simple, fee tail, or for life.
2. Property so held.

A freeholder is the owner of a land or estate, either for life or with inheritance rights. Tenure of land by giving service or paying rent is the common law equivalent of absolute ownership and became the prevailing system in the colonies. The colonial laws, influenced by the county franchise system of England and Wales, attached great importance to the possession of a freehold both for suffrage and officeholding. The democratic forces released by the American Revolution soon attacked such restrictions on the right to vote, and while the freeholder retained his privileged position in a few states until the Jacksonian era, universal suffrage became dominant in American politics.

Bibliography

Cantor, Norman F. Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System. New York: Harper-Collins, 1997.

Nelson, William Edward. Americanization of the Common Law: The Impact of Legal Change on Massachussetts Society, 1760–1830. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975.

—W. A. Robinson/A. E.

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Freehold, New Jersey is made up of two municipalities.

• The downtown area is Freehold Borough.
• The surrounding area is Freehold Township.

This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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