Daily AncestorTenement
In old deeds, tenement means any land or building held by someone, not the modern sense of a crowded apartment house.
Tenement comes from a Latin word meaning to hold. In older legal language it meant anything held, such as land, houses and rights in land, a holdover from feudal law where land was held rather than owned outright.
The common pairing lands and tenements simply means all real property. Do not read it as a city apartment building, which is a later meaning.
As seen in a recordWill recorded in a county will book, 1800s
All my lands, tenements and hereditaments I give to my two sons equally.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Tenement." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/legal-land/tenement. Last checked 2026-10-01.