View source for Seignory

{{Short description|Lordship granted over an estate}}
{{English Feudalism}}

In [[English law]], '''seignory''' or '''seigniory''', spelled '''''signiory''''' in [[Early Modern English]] ({{IPAc-en|'|s|eɪ|nj|ə|r|i}};<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] second edition |title=seignory |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/174926 |access-date=13 January 2019| date=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> {{langx|fr|seigneur|lit=lord}}; {{langx|la|senior|lit=elder}}), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a [[grantor]] after the grant of an estate in [[fee simple]].<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Seignory |volume=24 |page=586 |inline=1}}</ref>

''[[Nulle terre sans seigneur]]'' ("No land without a lord") was a [[feudalism|feudal]] [[legal maxim]]; where no other lord can be discovered, [[the Crown]] is lord as [[lord paramount]]. The principal incidents of a seignory were a feudal oath of [[Homage (feudal)|homage]] and [[fealty]]; a [[Quit-rent|"quit" or "chief" rent]]; a "relief" of one year's quit rent, and the right of [[escheat]]. In return for these privileges, the lord was liable to forfeit his rights if he neglected to protect and defend the tenant or did anything injurious to the feudal relation.<ref name=EB1911/>

Every seignory now existing must have been created before the statute ''[[Quia Emptores]]'' (1290), which forbade the future creation of estates in fee-simple by [[subinfeudation]]. The only seignories of any importance at present are the [[Lord of the manor|lordships of manors]]. They are regarded as incorporeal [[hereditament]]s, and are either appendant or in gross. A seignory appendant passes with the grant of the manor; a seignory in gross—that is, a seignory which has been severed from the [[demesne]] lands of the manor to which it was originally appendant—must be specially conveyed by deed of grant.<ref name=EB1911/>

[[Fee simple|Freehold]] land may be enfranchised by a [[Conveyancing|conveyance]] of the seignory to the freehold tenant, but it does not extinguish the tenant's right of common (''Baring v. Abingdon'', 1892, 2 Ch. 374). By s. 3 (ii.) of the Settled Land Act 1882, the tenant for life of a manor is empowered to sell the seignory of any freehold land within the manor, and by s. 21 (v.) the purchase of the seignory of any part of settled land being freehold land, is an authorized application of capital money arising under the act.<ref name=EB1911/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== See also ==
* [[Seigneurial system of New France]]
* [[Signoria]]
* [[Heerlijkheid]]
* [[Herrschaft]]

[[Category:Property law]]
[[Category:Feudalism in England]]