ignifies that estate in copyhold which the wife, being espoused a virgin, has, after the decease of her husband, for her dower, according to the custom of the manor.

Free or Imperial Cities, in Germany, are those not subject to any particular prince, but governed, like republics, by their own magistrates.

There were free cities (liberae civitates) even under the ancient Roman empire; such were those to which the emperor, by the advice or consent of the senate, gave the privilege of appointing their own magistrates, and governing themselves by their own laws.

Free Stone. See Mineralogy.