Old legal and record term medieval-1900s
What does fee simple mean in an old deed?
Fee simple is the fullest ownership of land the law allows, inheritable by any heirs without restriction, the phrase deeds still use. The companion boilerplate is to his heirs and assigns forever. Anything less than fee simple in a will hints at strings attached; read for them. You will meet it in deeds and wills, mostly medieval-1900s.
Where it appears: deeds, wills.
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Related terms
Browse the full genealogy records glossary for more occupations, causes of death, and legal terms.
FAQs
Where will I see fee simple in the records?+
Mostly in deeds and wills, medieval-1900s. Clerks abbreviated freely and spelling wandered, so expect variant wordings around it.
Do these old terms still matter for family history?+
Yes, a single word can settle a relationship. Relict names a widow, et ux hides an unnamed wife, natural son points at a parent. The words are dry, but what they encode about a family is not.
Where do these definitions come from?+
They are drawn from period dictionaries, government archive glossaries, and standard genealogy references, cross-checked against each other; provenance is documented with the dataset. Inside AncestorIQ, Deep Research reads the record itself and explains terms like this in context, against your ancestor's own document.
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