Frances asked: > Can anyone explain he difference between an "indenture of bargain & sale" > and "an indenture of feoffment". Quite usually there was no difference; the term "feoffment with livery of seisen" meant a transfer - including gifts - of physical objects or any other physical property - real estate - capable of being inherited, accompanied by an actual giving over of the object, or, if the property was land, a joint visit to the premises during which a piece of dirt or a limb was given by the owner to the "new" owner. In ancient times and even yet in the American colonies, that method was also called a transfer by "turf and twig." Such a conveyance was for centuries the ONLY way to convey ownership/transer such physical property. An "indenture of feoffment with livery of seisen" was later - and now - called a deed. Today, still, we require that there be an actual delivery - "livery" - of the deed when we buy land, and a "bill of sale" when we gain specific substantial property. With deeds and receipts from the local seller or merchant, we have almost completely supplanted those old methods.

I should have added that legal scholars speculate that a sale of land today by "turf and twig" likely would be sustained by a court, since that legal device seems to have never been specifically excluded as an acceptable method. Incidentally, for those who asked, I am a "lawyer," not an "attorney"; the former means one who has completed a legal education, the latter means one who practices law. I opted for a business career, though I very much love the law, especially in genealogy. Paul