FEOFFMENT, (Encycl.) is a substantive derived from the verb, to enfeoff, seoffare or infeudare, "to give one a feud;" and therefore feoffment is properly donatio feudi. It is the most ancient method of conveyance, the most solemn and public, and therefore the most easily remembered and proved. And it may properly be defined, the gift of any corporeal hereditament to another. He that so gives, or enfeoffs, is called the seoffor; and the person enfeoffed is denominated the seoffee.
This is plainly derived from, or is indeed itself the very mode of, the ancient feudal donation; for though it may be performed by the word "enfeoff" or "grant," yet the aptest word of feoffment is "do or dedi." And it is still directed and governed by the same feudal rules; inasmuch that the principal rule relating to the extent and effect of the feudal grant, tenor est qui legem dat feudo, is in other words become the maxim of our law with relation to feoffments, modus legem dat donationi. And therefore as in pure feudal donations the lord, from whom the feud moved, must expressly limit and declare the continuance or quantity of estate which he meant to confer, ne quis plus donasse presumatur, quam in donatione expresserit; so, if one grants by feoffment lands or tenements to another, and limits or expresses no estate, the grantee (due ceremonies of law being performed) hath barely an estate for life. For, as the personal abilities of the seoffee were originally presumed to be the immediate or principal inducements to the feoffment, the seoffee's estate ought to be confined to his person and subsist only for his life; unless the seoffor, by express provision in the creation and constitution of the estate, hath given it a longer continuance. These express provisions are indeed generally made: for this was for ages the only conveyance, whereby our ancestors were wont to create an estate in fee-simple, by giving the land to the
seoffee, to hold to him and his heirs for ever; though it serves equally well to convey any other estate of freehold.
But by the mere words of the deed the feoffment is by no means perfected: there remains a very material ceremony to be performed, called livery of seisin; without which the seoffee has but a mere estate at will. See SEISIN, (Encycl.)