Admission was the legal process granting a new tenant rights to copyhold property. The court ‘admitted’ someone following a previous tenant’s death, surrender, or other transfer, with the new tenant paying an ‘entry fine’ to the lord. Admission could be immediate or ‘in reversion’ (taking effect only after the current tenant’s tenure ended).
Periods of tenure were commonly for the tenant’s lifetime, a widow’s widowhood (ceasing upon remarriage), or ‘three lives’ — a system where the tenancy passed in a predetermined manner through three named individuals. The mechanism was used to pass a tenancy within a family.
Admission sometimes involved the tenant symbolically holding a rod carried by the seneschal, representing the transfer of rights “by the rod”. Tenants received a copy of the court roll entry (hence ‘copyhold’), serving as legal proof of tenancy and defining their rights, obligations, and restrictions under manorial custom.