Simple English definitions for legal terms
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Term: Legatory
Definition: Legatory refers to a part of a freeman's land that they could give away through their will after they passed away. This part was one-third of their estate, while the other two-thirds were reserved for their wife and children.
A legatory is a term used in history to describe the one-third portion of a freeman's estate in land that he could dispose of by will. This means that when a freeman died, he could leave one-third of his land to whoever he wanted. The other two-thirds of the estate were subject to claims of the wife and children.
These examples illustrate how a freeman could dispose of one-third of his estate in land by will, which was known as the legatory.