heriot The horses and arms of a tenant, or, if he was a villein, the best beast to which the lord was entitled by custom on the death of his tenant. Heriot service consisted of the right of heriot where the tenant died seised of an estate of inheritance, and could only exist an incident to a freehold tenure created before the statute Quia Emptores. Suit heriot was where the right was reserved on a grant or lease or freeholds made in modern times. Heriots survived chiefly as an incident of copyhold tenure, but were abolished as a manorial incident subject to compensation by the Law of Property Act 1922, s.128.