Copʹyhold Estate

Land which a tenant holds [or rather, held] without any deed of transfer in his own possession. His only document is a copy of the roll made by the steward of the manor from the court-roll kept in the manor-house.

“The villein took an oath of fealty to his lord for the cottage and land which he enjoyed from his bounty… . These tenements were suffered to descend to their children … and thus the tenure of copyhold was established.”—Lingard: England (vol. ii. chap. i. p. 27, note).

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.