Eng. Law. [L., = ‘to be held,’ neut. gerundive of tenēre to hold.] That part of a deed which defines the tenure by which the things granted are to be held (cf. HABENDUM).
1628. Coke, On Litt., 6. There haue beene eight formall or orderly parts of a deede of feoffment, viz. 1. the premisses of the deed implied by Littleton. 2. the habendum…. 3. the tenendum…. 4. the Reddendum. 5. the clause of warrantie [etc.].
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xx. 298. Next come the habendum and tenendum.… The tenendum ‘and to hold,’ is now of very little use, and is only kept in by custom. It was sometimes formerly used to signify the tenure by which the estate granted was to be holden.
1787. C. Butler, Coke On Litt., 108 a, note. Those grants from the crown which in the tenendum are expressed to be ut de honore et non in capite.
1862. Washburn, Amer. Law Real Prop. (1864), II. 612 (Funk). The tenendum, limiting and defining the tenure by which the lands are to be held, and once an important clause in the deed, is useless in this country.
1884. Elphinstone, Conveyancing, 100. The tenendum was of use before the passing of the Statute of Quia Emptores to state whether the purchaser was to hold of the vendor or of his lord; but it is now useless.
