FREEHOLD, FRANK TENEMENT (liberum tenementum),
is land or tenement which a man holds in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for a term of life. Freehold is of two kinds, in deed and in law. The first is the real possession of land or tenement in fee, fee-tail, or for life; the other is the right to such land or tenement before entry or seizure.
Freehold is sometimes taken in opposition to villenage. Lambard observes, that land, in the time of the Saxons, was distinguished into bockland, i.e. holden by book or writing; and folkland, i.e. held without writing: the former was held on far better condition, and by the better sort of tenants, as noblemen and gentlemen, being such as we now call freehold; the latter for the most part in possession of peasants, being held by them as tenants at will.