mon law is subject to no tolls or taxes; and hers is almost the only estate on which, when derived from the king's debtor, the king cannot distrain for his debt; if contracted during the coverture. (m) But, on the other hand, a widow may enter at once, with- [*139] out any formal process, on her jointure land; as she also might have done on dower ad ostium ecclesiæ, which a jointure in many points resembles; and the resemblance was still greater, while that species of dower continued in its primitive state: whereas no small trouble, and a very tedious method of proceeding, is necessary to compel a legal assignment of dower. (n) And, what is more, though dower be forfeited by the treason of the husband, yet lands settled in jointure remain unimpeached to the widow. (o) Wherefore Sir Edward Coke very justly gives it the preference, as being more sure and safe to the widow, than even dower ad ostium ecclesiæ, the most eligible species of any.

(m) Co. Litt. 31, a. F. N. B. 150.

(n) Co. Litt. 36.

(0) Ibid. 37.

CHAPTER IX.

OF ESTATES LESS THAN FREEHOLD.

Of estates that are less than freehold, there are three sorts: 1. Estates for years: 2. Estates at will: 3. Estates by sufferance.

I. An estate for years is a contract for the possession of lands or tenements, for some determinate period; and it takes place where a man letteth them to another for the term of a certain number of years, agreed upon between the lessor and lessee, (a) and the lessee enters thereon. (b) If the lease be but for half a year or a quarter, or any less time, this lessee is respected as a tenant for years, and is styled so in some legal proceedings; a year being the shortest term which the law in this case takes notice of. (c) And this may, not improperly, lead us into a short digression, concerning the division and calculation of time by the English law.

The space of a year is a determinate and well-known

(a) We may here remark, once for all, that the termination of "or" and "ee" (obtain in law, the one an active, the other a passive signification; the former usually denoting the doer of any act, the latter him to whom it is done. The feoffor is he that maketh a feoffment; the feoffee is he to whom it is made; the donor is one that giveth lands in tail; the donee is he who receiveth it; he that granteth a lease is denominated the lessor; and he to whom it is granted the lessee. (Litt. § 57.)

(b) Ibid, 58.

(c) Ibid, 67.

period, consisting commonly of 365 days; for though in *bissextile or leap-year, it consists [*141] properly of 366, yet, by the statute 21 Hen.

III, the increasing day in the leap-year, together with the preceding day, shall be accounted for one day only. That of a month is more ambiguous: there being, in common use, two ways of calculating months; either as lunar, consisting of twenty-eight days, the supposed revolution of the moon, thirteen of which make a year: or, as calendar months of unequal lengths, according to the Julian division in our common almanacks, commencing at the calends of each month, whereof in a year there are only twelve. A month in law is a lunar month, or twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed; not only because it is always one uniform period, but because it falls naturally into a quarterly division by weeks. Therefore a lease for "twelve months" is only for fortyeight weeks; but if it be for a "twelvemonth" in the singular number, it is good for the whole year. (d) For herein the law recedes from its usual calculation, because the ambiguity between the two methods of computation ceases; it being generally understood that by the space of time called thus, in the singular number, a twelvemonth, is meant the whole year, consisting of one solar revolution. In the space of a day all the twenty-four hours are usually reckoned, the law generally rejecting all fractions of a day, in order to avoid disputes. (e) Therefore, if I am bound to pay money on any certain (e) Co. Litt. 135.

(d) 6 Rep. 61.

day, I discharge the obligation if I pay it before twelve o'clock at night; after which the following day commences. But to return to estates for years.

These estates were originally granted to mere farmers or husbandmen, who every year rendered some equivalent in money, provisions, or other rent, to the lessors or landlords; but, in order to encourage them to manure and cultivate the ground, they had a permanent interest granted them, not determinable at the will of the lord. And yet their possession was esteemed of so little consequence, that they were rather considered as the bailiffs or servants of the lord, who were to receive and [*142] account for the profits at a settled price, than as having any property of their own. And therefore they were not allowed to have a freehold estate: but their interest (such as it was) vested after their deaths in their executors, who were to make up the accounts of their testator with the lord, and his other creditors, and were entitled to the stock upon the farm. The lessee's estate might also, by the ancient law, be at any time defeated by a common recovery suffered by the tenant of the freehold; (f) which annihilated all leases for years then subsisting, unless afterwards renewed by the recoverer, whose title was supposed superior to his by whom those leases were granted.

While estates for years were thus precarious, it is no wonder that they were usually very short, like our modern leases upon rack rent; and indeed we are told (g) (f) Co. Litt. 46.

(g) Mirror, c. 2, § 27. Co. Litt. 45, 46.

that by the ancient law no leases for more than forty years were allowable, because any longer possession (especially when given without any livery declaring the nature and duration of the estate) might tend to defeat the inheritance. Yet this law, if ever it existed, was soon antiquated; for we may observe in Madox's collection of ancient instruments, some leases for years of a pretty early date, which considerably exceed that period: (h) and long terms, for three hundred years or a thousand, were certainly in use in the time of Edward III, (i) and probably of Edward I. (k) But certainly, when by the statute 21 Hen. VIII, c. 15, the termor (that is, he who is entitled to the term of years) was protected against these fictitious recoveries, and his interest rendered secure and permanent, long terms began to be more frequent than before; and were afterwards extensively introduced, being found extremely convenient for family settlements and mortgages: continuing subject,

however, to the same rules of succession, *and [*143] with the same inferiority to freeholds, as when they were little better than tenancies at the will of the landlord.

Every estate which must expire at a period certain

(h) Madox Formulare Anglican, n°. 239, fol. 140. Demise for eighty years, 21 Ric. II,

for the like term, A. D. 1429.

148, for fifty years, 7 Edw. IV.

6.

Ibid. n°. 245, fol. 146,
Ibid. n°. 248. fol.

(i) 32 Ass. pl. 6. Bro. Abr. t. mordauncestor, 42; spoliation,

(k) Stat. of mortmain, 7 Edw. I.