In a will written in 1771, there is a reference to some land which he holds by lease for ' Three Lives'.
I assume that 'Three Lives' was a fixed period of time. Does anyone know how long it was?
"On entering into a contract the tenant would nominate up to 3 individuals who were to be the 'lives' on the lease. The tenement was then leased to the tenant for a term of years, usually 99, which was determinable on the lives of these individuals."
('The operation of life leasehold in South-west Lancashire, 1649-97' by A.J. Gritt)
www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/53n1a1.pdfEntry fines were payable at the start of the lease term, when the lease was renewed, or when lives were added or changed.
'This article explores the extent to which the social and economic contract framed by the life leasehold system helped to promote social stability and economic recovery.' (Part of abstract of article.) It has several charts showing relationships of 1st, 2nd and 3rd lives. There is information about lengths of leases. Estates owned by Molyneux and Blundell are among those examined. Individual examples cited include a lease which lasted 72 years and an old man returning to a manor, claiming to be the same person as the baby named on his father's lease 74 years earlier.
Sources cited in the article are in Lancashire Archives.
See also 'Lancashire Archives - A Guide to Manorial Records' by Sara Rose & others.
I always understood the 99 years term to be based on a generation being around 30 years. 99 years/3 lives leases were still around in Lancashire in 20th century for some farms, although the way they operated was different.
A 6xGGM, a married woman, was 3rd life on a lease in 1720s, after a 4yr-old boy who may have been her nephew and a young woman who may have been her sister or sister-in-law. They had a locally common surname and very common Christian names so it's hard to say who was who. Burial register showed several deaths of people with the surname in their part of the parish over a few years.
In the same parish as that 6xGGM, a 5xGGF seemed to be farming land in the same place in 1790 as his ancestors occupied in 1640 and 1580, although I have no definite proof that 1790 John was a direct ancestor of 1640 John and 1580 John.