Legal Definitions - feoffatus

Definition: Feoffatus is a term from Law Latin that refers to the recipient of a fief or an estate in fee simple. Feoffee, on the other hand, is the transferee of such an estate.

Example 1: John inherited a large estate from his father, who was a feoffatus. As the new feoffee, John now owns the estate in fee simple.

Example 2: In medieval England, a feoffee to uses was a person who held legal title to land for the benefit of another, known as a cestui que use. For instance, a lord might convey land to a feoffee to uses, who would then hold the land for the benefit of a tenant who paid rent to the lord.

These examples illustrate how feoffatus and feoffee were used in feudal and medieval societies to describe the transfer of land ownership and the rights and responsibilities that came with it. While these terms are not commonly used today, they are still relevant to the history of property law and the development of legal systems.