Seisin
or SEIZIN, a right to lands and tenements. In common law seisin signifies possession, as to seize is to take possession of a thing. Seisin is properly applied to estates of freehold only, so that a man is said to be seized of an estate of inheritance, but to be possessed of a chattel interest. There is a seisin in deed, or in fact, when an actual possession is taken, and a seisin in law where the lands have descended to a person but he has not yet actually taken possession of them. Seisin in deed is obtained by actually entering into the lands. In some of the States, as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Connecticut, seisin means merely ownership; and the distinction between seisin in deed or in law is not known in practice.