Legal Definition and Related Resources of Heirloom

personal chattels that go to the heir, together with the inheritance . It is a chattel intended to devolve with land.

While the authorities generally credit the origin of the word to the Saxon, some claim it was derived from “heier” or “heir,” and “leoma,” a limb or member; others are inclined to the opinion that it is a compound of the words “heir” and “loom,” the latter being a frame to weave in; still others claim that it had its origin in the Saxon word “loma” or “geloma,” which signifies utensils, or vessels generally. The older authorities limited the application of the term to articles of household furniture or “dead chattels movable,” but recent writers have given it a more general signification, until now it may be said that, in the common acceptance of the term, it includes all chattels which go to the heir, along with the inheritance, and necessary to its enjoyment, and which by custom, having belonged to a house, are seldjm inventoried after the decease of the owner and do not go to the executor or administrator of the last proprietor. Articles which are considered as annexed to the freehold and cannot be taken away without damaging or dismembering it; and utensils of the stronger or more ponderous kind which are not easily separated from the house are considered heirlooms. Charters, deeds, and other evidences of the title of the land, together with the box or chest in which they are contained, the keys of a house, tables, presses, cupboards, bedsteads, and wainscots, fish in a pond, deer in a park and doves in a dovehouse have been hejd to have been heirlooms going with the inheritance. Co. Litt. 3a, 185b, 8a; 7 Coke, 17b; Cro. Eliz. 372; Brooke, Abr. “Charters,” pi. 13; 2 Bl. Comm. 28, 427; 14 Viner, Abr. 291; 2 Kent’s Com. 343; 1 Williams on Exec. 606, 607, 609; Bro. Abr. Descent, pi. 43; Termes de la Ley; Spelman.

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Heirloom in Historical Law

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This definition of Heirloom is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This entry needs to be proofread.

Vocabularies (Semantic Web Information)

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English Legal System: Heirloom

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Heirloom :

A *chattel that, by custom or close association with land, passed on the owner’s death with his house to his heir and did not form part of his residuary estate. Heirlooms now pass to the deceased’s personal representatives unless special provision is made for them to pass to the heir direct. When heirlooms are held, together with land, under a settlement, the *tenant for life is entitled under the Settled Land Act 1925 to sell the heirlooms. The price is payable to the trustees as *capital money.