The school referred to is Old Swinford Hospital see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Swinford_Hospital. It is in fact a
voluntary-aided state school taking boarders. The Feoffees are its
foundation governors. I have always heard the word pronounced "feffees".
What was my family's solicitors firm used to act for them. I have never
heard any other pronunciation, except from those trying to pronounce all the
letters, without realising "eo" was a diphthong. The word is related to the
feudal term fief
Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley,
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
01562-720368
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: From: Local-History list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Frank Sharman
Sent: 20 October 2007 09:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: feoffees in trust
At 01:46 20/10/2007 +0100, you wrote:
>Hideaki.
>The modern equivalent of a
>feoffee is <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trustee>trustee, one who holds
>a legal and managerial ownership in
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust>trust for the enjoyment of the
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneficiary>beneficiary. Feoffees
>essentially had their titles stripped by the
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Uses>Statute of Uses 1535. You
>also have to be slightly weary as there were feoffees to uses and feoffees
>in trust.
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Frank
Feoffee is usually pronounced "feffee"; but a private school in
Stourbridge is still run by a body of feoffees and there they are called
"fifis". As they own much land in the area there is much talk about
locally about the fifis. This can be confusing to those better acquainted
with French poodles than obscure bits of legal terminology.
I need to get out more and am about to go on holiday.
Frank (another one - the one who dispenses useless information)
Frank Sharman
Wolverhampton
01902 763246
|