in law, hath divers applications. Sometimes it is used for a formal conveyance of lands or tenements, or of any thing inheritable, being in esse temporis finis, in order to cut off all controversies. Others define it to be a final agreement between persons, concerning any lands or rents, &c., of which any suit or writ is depending between them in any court.

Fines, sometimes signifies a sum of money paid for entering lands or tenements let by lease; and sometimes a pecuniary mulct for an offence committed against the king and his laws, or against the lord of the manor.

Fines for Alienation, in feudal law. One of the attendants or consequences of tenure by vassalship. Knight-Service, was that of fines due to the lord for consent every alienation, whenever the tenant had occasion to make over his land to another. This depended on the nature of the feudal connection; it not being reasonable nor allowed, that a feudatory should transfer his lord's gift to another, and substitute a new tenant to do the service in his own stead, without the consent of the lord; and, as the feudal obligation was considered as reciprocal, the lord also could not alienate his feignory without the consent of his tenant, which consent of his was called an attornment. This restraint upon the lord soon wore away; that upon the tenant continued longer. For, when every thing came in process of time to be bought and sold, the lords would not grant a licence to their tenants to alien, without a fine being paid; apprehending that, if it was reasonable for the heir to pay a fine or relief on the renovation of his paternal estate, it was much more reasonable that a stranger should make the same acknowledgment on his admission to a newly purchased feud. In England, these fines seem only to have been exacted from the king's tenants in capite, who were never able to alien without a licence; but, as to common persons, they were at liberty, by magna charta, and the statute of quia emptores, (if not earlier), to alien the whole of their estate, to be holden of the same lord as they themselves held it before. But the king's tenants in capite, not being included under the general words of these statutes, could not alien without a licence: for if they did, it was in ancient strictness an absolute forfeiture of the land; tho' some have imagined otherwise. But this severity was mitigated by the statute 1 Edw. III. c. 12. which ordained, that in such case the lands should not be forfeited, but a reasonable fine be paid to the king. Upon which statute it was settled, that one third of the yearly value should be paid for a licence of alienation; but, if the tenant presumed to alien without a licence, a full year's value should be paid. These fines were at last totally taken away by statute 12 Car. II. c. 24. See Knight-Service.