At its origin in medievalEngland, copyholdtenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manor court.
The privileges granted to each tenant, and the exact services he was to render to his lord in return for them, were described in a book kept by the Steward, who gave a copy of the same to the tenant, consequently these tenants were afterwards called Copyholders, (in contrast to freeholders).[1]
Copyholds were gradually enfranchised (turned into ordinary holdings of land—either freehold or 999-year leasehold) as a result of the Copyhold Acts during the 19th century. By this time, servitude to the Lord of the Manor was merely token, discharged on purchasing the copyhold by payment of a "fine in respite of fealty". Legislation in the 1920s finally extinguished the last of them.
^ Bland, W., ENCLOSURE OF COMMONS AND WASTE LANDS, FORMERLY IN THE TOWNSHIPS OF BELPER, DUFFIELD,HAZELWOOD, HEAGE, HOLBROOKE, TURNDITCH, AND ELSEWHERE IN THE OLD PARISH OF DUFFIELD http://www.jjb.uk.com/enclosure/enclosure.htm#five
