in law, signifies possession. In this sense we say, premier seisine, for the first possession, &c.

Seisin is divided into that in deed or in fact, and that in law. A seizin in deed is where a possession is actually taken; but a seizin in law is, where lands descend, and the party has not entered thereon; or in other words, it is where a person has a right to lands, &c. and is by wrong deprived of them. A seizin in law is held to be sufficient to avow on; though to the bringing of an affidavit, actual seizin is required; and where seizin is alleged, the person pleading it must show of what estate he is seizied, &c.

Seizin of a superior service is deemed to be a seizin of all superior and casual services that are incident thereto; and seisin of a lessee for years, is sufficient for him in reversion.

Livery of Seisin, in law, an essential ceremony in the conveyance of landed property; being no other than the pure feudal investiture, or delivery of corporeal possession of the land or tenement. This was held absolutely necessary to complete the donation; Nam feudam sine investitura nullo modo constitui potuit: and an estate was then only perfect when, as Fleta exprestes it in our law, fit juris et seisinæ conjunctio. See Feofment.

Investitures, in their original rise, were probably intended to demonstrate in conquered countries the actual possession of the lord; and that he did not grant a bare litigious right, which the holder was ill qualified to prosecute, but a peaceable and firm possession. And, at a time when writing was seldom practised, a mere oral gift, at a distance from the spot that was given, was not likely to be either long or accurately retained in the memory of bystanders, who were very little interested in the grant. Afterwards they were retained as a public and notorious act, that the country might take notice of and testify the transfer of the estate; and that such as claimed title by other means might know against whom to bring their actions.

In all well-governed nations, some notoriety of this kind has been ever held requisite, in order to acquire and ascertain the property of lands. In the Roman law, plenum dominium was not paid to subsist unless where a man had both the right and the corporal possession; which possession could not be acquired without both an actual intention to possess, and an actual seisin, or entry into the premises, or part of them in the name of the whole. And even in ecclesiastical promotions, where the freehold passes to the person promoted, corporal possession is required at this day to vest the property completely in the new proprietor; who, according to the distinction of the canonists, acquires the jus ad rem, or inchoate and imperfect right, by nomination and institution; but not the jus in re, or complete and full right, unless by corporal possession. Therefore in dignities possession is given by instalment; in rectories and vicarages by induction; without which no temporal rights accrue to the minister, though every ecclesiastical power is vested in him by institution. So also even in decents of lands, by our law, which are cast on the heir by act of the law itself, the heir has not plenum dominium, or full and complete ownership, till he has made an actual corporal entry into the lands: for if he dies before entry made, his heir shall not be entitled to take the possession, but the heir of the person who was last actually seised. It is not therefore only a mere right to enter, but the actual entry, that makes a man complete owner; so as to transmit the inheritance to his own heirs: non jus, sed seisinæ, facit stipitem.

Yet the corporal tradition of lands being sometimes inconvenient, a symbolical delivery of possession was in many cases anciently allowed; by transferring something near at hand, in the presence of credible witnesses, which by agreement should serve to represent the very thing designed to be conveyed; and an occupancy of this sign or symbol was permitted as equivalent to occupancy of the land itself. Among the Jews we find the evidence of a purchase thus defined in the book of Ruth: "Now this was the manner in former time in Israel, concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things: a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour; and this was a testimony in Israel." Among the ancient Goths and Swedes, contracts for the sale of lands were made in the presence of witnesses, who extended the cloak of the buyer, while the seller cast a clod of the land into it, in order to give possession; and a staff or wand was also delivered from the vender to the vendee, which passed through the hands of the witnesses. With our Saxon ancestors the delivery of a turf was a necessary solemnity to establish the conveyance of lands. And, to this day, the conveyance of our copyhold estates is usually made from the feller to the lord or his steward by delivery of a rod or verge, and then from the lord to the purchaser by re-delivery of the same in the presence of a jury of tenants.

Conveyances in writing were the last and most refined improvement. The mere delivery of possession, either actual or symbolical, depending on the ocular testimony and remembrance of the witnesses, was liable to be forgotten or misrepresented, and became frequently incapable of proof. Besides, the new occasions and necessities introduced by the advancement of commerce, required means to be devised of charging and incumbering estates, and of making them liable to a multitude of conditions and minute designations, for the purposes of raising money, without an absolute sale of the land; and sometimes the like proceedings were found useful in order to make a decent and competent provision for the numerous branches of a family, and for other domestic views. None of which could be effected by a mere, simple, corporal transfer of the soil from one man to another, which was principally calculated for conveying an absolute unlimited dominion. Written deeds were therefore introduced, in order to specify and perpetuate the peculiar purposes of the party who conveyed; yet still, for a very long series of years, they were never made use of, but in company with the more ancient and notorious method of transfer by delivery of corporal possession.

Livery of seisin, by the common law, is necessary to be made upon every grant of an estate of freehold in hereditaments corporeal, whether of inheritance or for life only. In hereditaments incorporeal it is impossible to be made; for they are not the object of the seisin; and in leases for years, or other chattel interests, it is not necessary. In leases for years indeed an actual entry is necessary, to vest the estate in the lessee; for a bare lease gives him only a right to enter, which is called his interest in the term, or interesse termini: and when he enters in pursuance of that right, he is then, and not before, in possession of his term, and complete tenant for years. This entry by the tenant himself serves the purpose of notoriety, as well as livery of seisin from the granter could have done; which it would have been improper to have given in this case, because that solemnity is appropriated to the conveyance of a freehold. And this is one reason why freeholds cannot be made to commence in futuro, because they cannot (at the common law) be made but by livery of seisin; which livery, being an actual manual tradition of the land, must take effect in praesenti, or not at all.

Livery of seisin is either in deed or in law. Livery in deed is thus performed. The feoffor, lessor, or his attorney, together with the feoffee, lessee, or his attorney, (for this may as effectually be done by deputy or attorney as by the principals themselves in person), come to the land or to the house; and there, in the presence of witnesses, declare the contents of the feoffment or lease on which livery is to be made. And then the feoffor, if it be of land, doth deliver to the feoffee, all other persons being out of the ground, a clod or turf, or a twig or bough there growing, with words to this effect: "I deliver these to you in the name of seisin of all the lands and tenements contained in this deed." But, if it be of a house, the feoffor must take the ring or latch of the door, the house being quite empty, and deliver it to the feoffee in the same form; and then the feoffee must enter alone, and shut the door, and then open it, and let in the others. If the conveyance or feoffment be of divers lands, lying scattered in one and the same county, then in the feoffor's possession, livery of seisin of any parcel, in the name of the rent, sufficeth for all; but if they be in several counties, there must be as many liveries as there are counties. For, if the title to these lands comes to be disputed, there must be as many trials as there are counties, and the jury of one county are no judges of the notoriety of a fact in another. Besides, anciently, this seisin was obliged to be delivered coram paribus de vicinato, before the peers or freeholders of the neighbourhood, who attested such delivery in the body or on the back of the deed; according to the rule of the feudal law, Pares debent inter se invicem et feudis, et non aliis: for which this reason is expressly given; because the peers or vassals of the lord, being bound by their oath of fealty, will take care that no fraud be committed to his prejudice, which strangers might be apt to connive at. And though afterwards the ocular attestation of the peers was held unnecessary, and livery might be made before any credible witnesses, yet the trial, in case it was disputed, (like that of all other attestations), was still referred to the peers or jury of the county. Also, if the lands be out on lease, though all lie in the same county, there must be as many liveries as there are tenants: because no livery can be made in this case, but by the consent of the particular tenant; and the consent of one will not bind the rest. And in all these cases it is prudent, and usual, to endorse the livery of seisin on the back of the deed, specifying the manner, place, and time of making it; together with the names of the witnesses. And thus much for livery in deed.

Livery in law is where the same is not made on the land, but in sight of it only; the feoffor saying to the feoffee, "I give you yonder land, enter and take possession." Here, if the feoffee enters during the life of the feoffor, it is a good livery, but not otherwise; unless he dares not enter through fear of his life or bodily harm; and then his continual claim, made yearly in due form of law, as near as possible to the lands, will suffice without an entry. This livery in law cannot, however, be given or received by attorney, but only by the parties themselves.