[1] In English law, it relates to parsing aspects of ownership and liability in all forms of property.
[4] Thus on the death of a feudal baron or lord of the manor without a male heir (the eldest of whom would inherit all his estates by the custom of male primogeniture) but with daughters as heiresses, a moiety of his fiefdom would generally pass to each daughter, to be held by her husband.
Such was the case in the barony of Newmarch, the caput or chief manor of which was at North Cadbury, Somerset, when James de Newmarch died in 1216; had no son but left two co-heiresses, Isabel and Hawise, who being heirs of a tenant-in-chief became wards of the king.
[5] Certain freehold and copyhold hereditaments and leasehold tenements of Henry Belward Ray were left in his will to infants with whom he – (the testator) – had no blood relation.
To ensure that Ray's land would not escheat to the Crown, in March 1860, his trustees presented a petition to the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain to create an Act of Parliament[which?]