DCHP-3

fief

[< F]
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1n. Obs.

in French Canada, a tract of land granted under conditions of feudal tenure by the French Crown, the seigneurial rights obtaining until 1854.

See: seigneury(def. 1a)

Quotations

1775
It is therefore our will and pleasure, that all lands . . . be granted in fief or seigneurie, in like manner as was practiced antecedent to the conquest of the said province . . . omitting, however, the reservation of any judicial powers whatever, the properties of which seigneuries or fiefs shall be and remains vested in us, our heirs and successors.
2n.

a lease to a tract of land; also, the land itself.

Quotations

1807
Labrador Fiefs and Fisheries for sale.
1953
On the death of her uncle, who had homesteaded this tract along the Bear River and staked a float-gold claim up the tributary creek, she had come here to live out the two remaining years of the fief and nurse her brother Paul back to health.