Hi everyone NOW I understand how leaseholds work! Thanks to the very knowledgeable and helpful people on this list, I now *get* the differences between holding land in England and holding land in the U S. Very interesting concepts. Obviously, it works, given that it has been in effect for many centuries now. And I can see how a leasehold would be considered a valuable bequest. Now I will delve further and see if I can uncover just how my 5x great grandmother used that bequest. I have thanked all individuals who responded to my puzzlement, but a general thank you to all of the list participants seems in order. You all answer so many questions and fill in so many gaps in our research, and I, for one, appreciate it. Nancy a formerly-confused researcher

<<NOW I understand how leaseholds work! Thanks to the very knowledgeable and helpful people on this list, I now *get* the differences between holding land in England and holding land in the U S. Very interesting concepts. Obviously, it works, given that it has been in effect for many centuries now. And I can see how a leasehold would be considered a valuable bequest.>> Umm, actually, Nancy, leaseholds are pretty much as common in the United States as in England. There are differences in detail between the 2 systems at the present time (just as there are between the systems of the various states), but property is probably leased nearly as often in the US as it is in England (the differences between the English and US systems are minor compared to the differences between them both and landholding in other, non-English-settled countries - including Scotland, whose property law is very different from that of both the US and England!). And back in 1775 the differences would have been even less - the property law operating in each state was basically the English common law with various changes of detail made by local statutes. You may perhaps have been mislead by the word 'leasehold' - it just means land held by a lease, and 'lease' can comprehend a wide variety of forms of tenancy (which may be known by other labels than 'lease'), ranging from short-term contracts at a rack rent with no security of tenure to very lengthy terms at very low rents with rights of renewal. Those towards the latter end of the spectrum would have considerable capital value and would indeed represent a valuable legacy. Matt Tompkins