LIVERY

1. In English law. Delivery of possession of their lands to the king’s tenants in capite or tenants by knight’s service. 2. A writ which may be sued out by a ward in chivalry, on reaching his majority, to obtain delivery of the possession of his lands out of the hands of the guardian. 2 Bl. Comm. 68. 3. A particular dress or garb appropriate or peculiar to certain persons, as the members of a guild, or, more particularly, the servants of a nobleman or gentleman. 4. The privilege of a particular guild or company of persons, the members thereof being called “livery men.” 5. A contract of hiring of work beasts, particularly horses, to the use of the hirer. It is seldom used alone in this sense, but appears in the compound, “livery stable.” Livery in chivalry. In feudal law. The delivery of the lands of a ward in chivalry out of the guardian’s hands, upon the heir’s attaining the requisite age,twenty one for males, sixteen for females. 2 Bl. Comm. 68. Liveryman. A member of some company in the city of London; also called a “freeman.”Livery of seisin. The appropriate ceremony, at common law, for transferring the corporal possession of lands or tenements by a grantor to his grantee. It was livery in deed where the parties went together upon the land, and there a twig, clod, key, or other symbol was delivered in the name of the whole. Livery in law was where the same ceremony was performed, not upon the land itself, but in sight of it. 2 Bl. Comm. 315, 316; Micheau v. Crawford, 8 N. J. Law, 108; Northern Pac. R. Co. v. Cannon (C. C) 46 Fed. 232. Livery office. An office appointed for the delivery of lands. Livery stable keeper. One whose business it is to keep horses for hire or to let, or to keep, feed, or board horses for others. Kittanning Borough v. Montgomery, 5 Pa. Super. Ct. 198.