Extracted From:
  A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856
  by John Bouvier
  CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA

TENANCY or TENANTCY. The state or condition of a tenant; the estate held by a
tenant, as a tenant at will, a tenancy for years. 

TENANT, estates. One who holds or possesses lands or tenements by any kind of
title, either in fee, for life, for years, or at will....
   Tenants may be considered with regard to the estate to which they are
entitled. There are tenants in fee; tenants by the curtesy; tenants in dower;
tenants in tail after. possibility of issue extinct; tenants for life tenants
for years; tenants from year to year; tenants at Will; and tenants at suffrance.
When considered with regard to their number, tenants are in severalty; tenants
in common; and joint tenants. There is also a kind of tenant, called tenant to
the praecipe. These will be separately examined. 
   Tenant in fee is he who has an estate of inheritance in the land....
   Tenant by the curtesy, is where a man marries a woman seised of an estate of
inheritance, that is, of lands and tenements in fee simple or fee tail; and has
by her issue born alive, which was capable of inheriting her estate. In this
case he shall, on the death of his wife, hold the lands for life, as tenant by
the curtesy....
   Tenant in dower is where the husband of a woman is seised of an estate of
inheritance, and dies; in this case, the wife shall have the third part of the
lands and tenements of which he was seised at any time during the coverture, to
hold to herself during the term of her natural life....
   Tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct, is where one is tenant in
special tail, and a person from whose body the issue was to spring, dies without
issue; or having issue, becomes extinct; in these cases the survivor becomes
tenant in tail after possibility of issue extinct... and vide Estate tail after
possibility of issue extinct. 
   Tenant for life, is he to whom lands or tenements are granted, or to which he
derives by operation of law a title for the term of his own life, or for that of
any other person, or for more lives than one. 
   He is called tenant for life, except when he holds the estate by the life of
another, when he is called tenant er autre vie....
   Tenant for years, is he to whom another has let lands, tenements and
hereditaments for a term of certain years, or for a lesser definite period of
time, and the lessee enters thereon....
   A tenant for years has incident to, and unseparable from his estate, unless
by special agreement, the same estovers to which a tenant for life is entitled.
See Estate for life. With regard to the crops or emblements, the tenant for
years is not, in general, entitled to them after the expiration of his term. 2
Bl. Com. 144. But in Pennsylvania, the tenant is entitled to the way going
crop....
   Tenant from year to year, is he to whom another has let lands or tenements,
without any certain or determinate estate; especially if an annual rent be
reserved.... And when a person is let into possession as a tenant, without any
agreement as to time, the inference now is, that he is a tenant from year to
year, until the contrary be proved; but, of course, such presumption may be
rebutted.... The difference between a tenant from year to year, and a tenant for
years, is rather a distinction in words than in substance....
   Tenant at will, is when lands or tenements are let by one man to another, to
have and th bold to him at the will of the lessor, by force of which the lessee
is in possession. In this case the lessee is called tenant at will. 
   Every lease at will must be at the will of both parties....
   Tenant at suffrance, is he who comes into possession by a lawful demise, and
after his term is ended, continues the possession wrongfully, and holds over....
   Tenant in severalty, is he who holds land and tenements in his own right
only, without any other person being joined or connected with him in point of
interest, during his estate therein....
   Tenants in common, are such as hold by several and distinct titles, but by
unity of possession....
   Tenants in common may have title as such to real or personal property; they
may be tenants of a house, land, a horse, a ship, and the like. 
   Tenants in common are bound to account to each other; but they are bound to
account only for the value of the property as it was when they entered, and not
for any improvement or labor they put upon it, at their separate expense....
Joint tenants, are such as hold lands or tenements by joint tenancy.
   Tenants to the praecipe, is be against whom the writ of praecipe is brought,
in suing out a common recovery, and must be the tenant or seised of the
freehold....

TENANT OF THE DEMESNE, Eng. law. One who is tenant of a mesne lord; as where A
is tenant of B, and C of A; B is the lord, A the mesne lord and C tenant of the
demesne....

TENANT BY THE MANNER. One who has a less estate than a fee in land, which
remains in the reversioner. He is so called because in avowries and other
pleadings, it is specially shown in what manner, he is tenant of the land, in
contradistinction to the veray tenant, who is called simply, tenant....

TENANT PARAVAIL, English law. The tenant of a tenant; and is so called because
he has the avails or profits of the land....

TENANT RIGHT, Eng. law. In leases from the crown, corporations or the church, it
is usual to grant a further term to the old tenants in preference to strangers,
and, as this expectation is seldom disappointed, such tenants are considered as
baying an ulterior interest beyond their subsisting term; and this interest is
called the tenant right....

VERAY TENANT, or TRUE TENANT, Eng. law. One who holds a fee simple; in
pleadings, he is called simply tenant. He differs from a tenant by the manner in
this, that the latter holds a less estate than a fee which remains in the
reversioner. 
   A veray tenant by the manner is the same as tenant by the manner, with this
difference only, that the fee simple, instead of remaining in the land, is given
by him or by the law, to another....

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