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Definition of a "Quit Rent"
From: Rob Warren / rwarren@TECHLINE.COM
"Quit Rent" meant (and still means today) exactly as it sounds... It is/was
the term that a landlord uses when he gives a tenant a notice to vacate or an
eviction notice. It is also describes what a tenant has done or intends to do
when he no longer wants to rent property from a landlord.
From: rondie@theriver.com
According to my Black's Law Dictionary "A rent paid by the tenant of
a freehold, by which he goes quit or free,--that is, discharged from
any other rent." It is my understanding that the "quit rent" paid in
colonial times went to the Governor of a colony (as the representative
of the Crown, or the Crown's Designee] for the use of the land.
Sometimes it was a small, mostly ceremonial amount--a peppercorn for
example--sometimes it was a bit more. It was mainly to remind
everybody just who was boss, or at least that's the way I interpret
it.
From: Mike Gallafent / Mike@galafent.demon.co.uk
Quit Rent - A small fixed annual rent whose payment released a tenant
from manorial services. Such payments were abolished in 1922.
(Oxford Companion to Local & Family History)
From: Linnea Miller in Central PA / ltmiller@ptdprolog.net
I'm speaking for Pennsylvania: A Quit Rent was a yearly amount paid by a
person who "purchased" a lot from a proprietary (a large landowner who set
his land off in lots for sale, like for a town). Usually the amount was
small, like 1£ per acre or lot per year. When purchasing the lot, the new
owner was required to erect a living structure on it within a certain
amount of time (I have seen 18 months listed for some). The structure
often was given minimum dimensions, also. The new owner was unable to
"sell" this lot until the terms of the original quit rent agreement ware
satisfied. When the property was sold, the quit rent went along with it!!
There were still deeds found in PA in the 1930's that had quit rents
attached! At that time the landowners were being "released" from this
obligation (which had not been paid for years.)
This definitely WAS NOT a money-making endeavor for the large landowners -
many found themselves in dire financial straights because of these tiny
quit rents there were receiving!
