feoffee

A feoffee is a historical legal term used in feudal law to describe a person who holds land under a grant known as a feoffment. The feoffor, or grantor, transfers a fee estate to the feoffee, who becomes the holder of the land and can possess and use it according to the terms of the grant. The transfer of possession was traditionally marked by the ceremony of seisin, whereby the feoffee received control of the land.

In feudal tenure, the feoffee held the land “in fee” and owed certain duties to the feoffor or to a higher overlord. These duties could include rents, service, or other obligations defined by the grant. The feoffor typically retained some form of interest, such as a reversion, that could take effect if the terms of the grant were breached or if the estate terminated.

The relationship between feoffee and feoffor established the proprietary structure of medieval landholding, with the feoffee acting as a vassal who could convey the land to others within the limits of the fee. The inheritance of the fee by the feoffee’s heirs depended on the nature of the fee—such as fee simple or fee tail—each carrying different rules for succession and control. Over time, feoffments and the feoffee concept contributed to the development of modern property concepts, even as the formal use of feoffment declined in favor of contemporary conveyancing and ownership terminology.

Today, feoffee is largely a historical term. Modern property law describes landholders in terms of freehold estates or leases rather than feoffments, though the historical idea of holders of land under a fee persists in the language of legal history.