free bench
free bench noun: a married woman's entitlement to the use of her husband's lands or property after he dies; or the land and property itself considered as such an entitlement.
Noun
free bench (uncountable)
- A married woman's entitlement to the use of her husband's lands or property after he dies; or the land and property itself considered as such an entitlement.
- In most manors, free-bench consists of one half of the husband's copyhold; although, in others, it consists of a third or fourth part, and in some few, of the whole copyhold.1808, William Cruise, A Digest of the Laws of England Respecting Real Property, page 329
- The widow enjoyed the right of freebench, that is, of succession to a portion of her late husband's holding, ranging from a quarter to the whole, according to local manorial custom.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 541
Forms of free bench
| alternative form | freebench |
|---|---|
| alternative form | free-bench |
Origin of free bench
From free + bench, after Anglo-Norman franc banc (“frank bank”).
Questions about free bench
- What does free bench mean?
- Free bench means a married woman's entitlement to the use of her husband's lands or property after he dies; or the land and property itself considered as such an entitlement.
- What part of speech is free bench?
- Free bench is a noun.
Words near free bench in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: free bench (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “free bench.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/free_bench. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.