Lives on land

[Deleted]

I am interested to know in some detail how the system of lives works. Sometimes in a Will you see a certain tenement being held for two lives or sometimes it states who's lives they are.

Lannanta

[donne]

Cornish leases are very often determined on 'lives' as opposed to a fixed term - that is, the leased tenement reverts to the owner upon the death of the last named 'life'. There are usually three 'lives' named - that seems to be the maximum - but there are sometimes less.

Usually they are the lessee and/or members of his family, but could be unrelated if no suitable candidates were in the close family - obviously it would be best if they all had some interest in the property. Choice of an individual for one of the named 'lives' was a matter of fine judgement. Maybe it would be thought that the younger the better, but in an age of high infant mortality a young child may not be the wisest choice - a healthy teenager would probably be ideal. I believe that it was possible to substitute another name on the death of one of the 'lives', but that may not be agreed by the owner and he would certainly charge a fee for so agreeing.

Clearly the value of a lease at any time would be related to the expected remaining tenure so the ages of the named 'lives' are always quoted in the lease and any amendments to the lease during its tenure. Of course this a valuable source of information for us family historians, specially if the family relationships are also described as they often are.