The act of making free; giving a franchise or freedom to; Investiture with privileges or capacities of freedom, or municipal or political liberty. Admission to the freedom of a city; admission to political rights, and particularly the right of suffrage. Anciently, the acquisition of freedom by a villein from his lord.
The word is now used principally either of the manumission of slaves, (q. v.,) of giving to a borough or other constituency a right to return a member or members to parliament, or of the conversion of copyhold into freehold. Mozley & Whitley. Enfranchisement of copyholds. In English law. The conversion of copyhold into freehold tenure, by a conveyance of the fee simple of the property from the lord of the manor to the copyholder, or by a release from the lord of all seigniorial rights, etc., which destroys the customary descent, and also all rights and privileges annexed to the copyholder’s estate. 1 Watk. Copyh. 362; 2 Steph. Comm. 51.