[1] Her maiden name was Mary Ludwig. "Molly Pitcher" was a nickname
given to her by the soldiers in reference to her carrying water to
soldiers overcome by heat in the battle of Monmouth. She married Hays
in 1769; Hays died soon after the war, and later she married one
George McCauley. She lived for more than forty years at Carlisle,
Penn., where a monument was erected to her memory in 1876.
FREEHOLD, in the English law of real property, an estate in land, not
being less than an estate for life. An estate for a term of years, no
matter how long, was considered inferior in dignity to an estate for
life, and unworthy of a freeman (see ESTATE). "Some time before the
reign of Henry II., but apparently not so early as Domesday, the
expression _liberum tenementum_ was introduced to designate land held by
a freeman by a free tenure. Thus freehold tenure is the sum of the
rights and duties which constitute the relation of a free tenant to his
lord."[1] In this sense freehold is distinguished from copyhold, which
is a tenure having its origin in the relation of lord and villein (see
COPYHOLD). Freehold is also distinguished from leasehold, which is an
estate for a fixed number of years only. By analogy the interest of a
person who holds an office for life is sometimes said to be a freehold
interest. The term _customary freeholds_ is applied to a kind of
copyhold tenure in the north of England, viz. tenure by copy of
court-roll, but not, as in other cases, expressed to be at the will of
the lord.