cofeoffee

English

Alternative forms

• co-feoffee

Etymology

From Middle English cofeffe, cofeoffe, confeoffe, equivalent to co- +‎ feoffee.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊfɛˈfiː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊfɛˈfiː/
• Hyphenation: co‧feoff‧ee

Noun

cofeoffee (plural cofeoffees)

1. (law, historical) A joint feoffee; one of a group of individuals jointly holding a fief.
   • 1615, William West, The First Part of Simboleography. […], London: […] Companie of Stationers, page 249:

     […] that then ſuch and ſo many of the ſaid twelue Cofeoffees aforenamed, which ſhal ſo depart away forth of the ſaid towne of C. and inhabite ⁊ dwell in any other place, ſhall not […] take, receiue, or diſpoſe, any of the rents, iſſues, or profits of the ſaid tenements ⁊ premiſſes: […]

   • a. 1726, Lord Chief Baron Gilbert [i.e., Jeffrey Gilbert], The Law of Executions. […], London: […] W. Owen […], published 1763, page 45:

     But where the Lands of any Cofeoffee are omitted, there ſuch Perſon, whoſe Lands are extended, muſt bring his Audita Qeurela againſt the Conuſee, and ſuch Cofeoffee; […]

   • 1869, [John Reeves], chapter XXIV, in W[illiam] [Francis] Finlason, editor, Reeves' History of the English Law, […], Vol. III. From the Reign of Edward IV to the Reign of Elizabeth, London: Reeves & Turner […], page 16:

     The other acts of this reign that are at all of a juridical nature, are the following: one was to declare that wherever the king was co-feoffee of lands to the use of the feoffer, the land should be in the co-feoffees; which was to prevent the conclusion of law that would give, in such case, the whole to the kind: another required a certain qualification of property in jurors who served in the sherrif's tourn.

   • 1974, Eleanor Searle, Lordship and Community: Battle Abbey and Its Banlieu, 1066-1538, Toronto, O.N.: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, →ISBN, page 422:

     He [John Broke] last appears as an attorney in 1400, though afterwards, for nearly ten years, he was frequently named as cofeoffee in Hartfield hundred.

References

• “co-feoffee, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “cōfeffẹ̄, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.