FREE BENCH is that estate which, by the particular custom of the manor, the widow becomes entitled to on the decease of the husband, in his copyhold lands and tenements. Anciently the term was equally applicable to that which the husband becomes entitled to on the decease of the wife; but of later days the estate of the husband has been denominated his curtesy, while the term freebench has been confined to the widow's estate. (See Watkins on Copyholds.)