feoffment

Feoffment \Feoff"ment\, n. [OF. feoffement, fieffement; cf. LL.
   feoffamentum.] (Law)
   (a) The grant of a feud or fee.
   (b) (Eng. Law) A gift or conveyance in fee of land or other
       corporeal hereditaments, accompanied by actual delivery
       of possession. --Burrill.
   (c) The instrument or deed by which corporeal hereditaments
       are conveyed. [Obs. in the U.S., Rare in Eng.] Feofor
    

FEOFFMENT, conveyancing. A gift of any corporeal hereditaments to another. 
It operates by transmutation of possession, and it is essential to its 
completion that the seisin be passed. Watk. Prin. Conv. 183. This term also 
signifies the instrument or deed by which such hereditament is conveyed. 
     2. This instrument was used as one of the earliest modes of conveyance 
of the common law. It signified, originally, the grant of a feud or fee; but 
it came, in time, to signify the grant of a free inheritance in fee, respect 
being had to the perpetuity of the estate granted, rather than to the feudal 
tenure. The feoffment was, likewise, accompanied by livery of seisin. The 
conveyance, by feoffment, with livery of seisin, has become infrequent, if 
not obsolete, in England; and in this country it has not been used in 
practice. Cruise, Dig. t. 32, c. 4. s. 3; Touchs. c. 9; 2 Bl. Corn. 20; Co. 
Litt. 9; 4 Kent, Com. 467; Perk.. c. 3; Com. Dig. h.t.; 12 Vin. Ab. 167; 
Bac. Ab. h.t. in pr.; Doct. Plac. 271; Dane's Ab. c. 104, a. 3, s. 4. He 
who gives or enfeoffs is called the feoffor; and the person enfeoffed is 
denominated the feoffee. 2 Bl. Com. 20. See 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2045, note.