YEA 
twenty-four, and in others tiiirfy and forty 
acres. 
Yards of a ship, are those long pieces of 
timber which are made a little tapering at 
each end, and are fitted each athwart its 
proper mast, with the sails made fast to 
them, so as to be hoisted up, or lowered 
down, as occasion serves. They have their 
names from the masts to which they be- 
long. 
There are several sea-terms relating to 
the management of the yards; as, square 
the yards; that is, see tliat they hang right 
across the ship, and no yard arm traversed 
more than another : top the yards, that is, 
make them stand even, To top thfe main 
arid fore-yards, the clew-lines are the most 
proper; but wlien the top-sails are stowed, 
then the top-sail-sheets will top them. 
Yard arm is that half of the yard that 
is on either side of the mast, when it lies 
athwart the ship. 
Yards also denotes places belonging to 
the navy, where the ships of war, &c. are 
laid up in harbour. There are, belonging 
to his Majesty’s navy, six great yards, viz. 
Chatham, Deptford, Woolwich, Ports- 
mouth, Sheerness, and Plymouth; these 
yards are fitted with several docks, wharfs, 
launches, and graving places, for the build- 
ing, repairing, and cleaning of his Majesty’s 
ships; and therein are lodged great quan- 
tities of timber, masts, planks, anchors, and 
other materials : there are also convenient 
store-houses in each yard, in which are laid 
up vast quantifies of cables, rigging, sails, 
blocks, and all other sorts of stores, needful 
for the royal navy. 
YARE, among sailors, implies ready or 
quick; as, be yare at the helm; that is, be 
quick, ready, and expeditious at the helm. 
It is sometimes also used for bright by sea- 
men : as, to keep his arms yare ; that is, to 
keep them clean and bright. 
YARN, wool or flax spun into thread, 
of which they weave cloth. 
YEAR, the time that the sun takes to go 
through the twelve signs of the zodiac. See 
Chronology. 
Year and Day, is a time that deter- 
mines a right in many cases ; and, in some, 
works an usurpation, and in others a pre- 
scription; as in case of an estray, if the 
owner, proclamation being made, chaliengp 
it not within the time, it is forfeited. 
So is the year and day, given in case of 
appeal ; in case of descent after entry or 
claim ; if no claim upon a fine or writ of 
fight at the common law ; so if a villain re- 
YEA 
maining in ancient demesne ; of a man sore 
bruised or wounded ; of protections ; es- 
soigns in respect of the King’s service ; of a 
wreck, and divers other cases. 
A'ears, estate for. Tenant for term of 
years is, where a man lettelh lands or tene- 
ments to another, for a certain term of 
years agreed upon between the lessor and 
lessee; and when the lessee entereth by 
force of the lease, then he is tenant for 
term of years. 
If tenements be let to a man for term of 
half a year, or for a quarter of a year, or 
any less time, this lessee is respected as te- 
nant for years, and is styled so in some le- 
gal proceedings, a year being the shortest 
term which the law in this case takes no- 
tice of. 
Generally, every estate which must ex- 
pire at a period certain and prefixed, by 
whatever words created, is an estate for 
years, and therefore this estate is frequently 
called a term, because its duration or con- 
tinuance is bounded, limited, and deter- 
mined. For every such estate must have a 
certain beginning and certain end. If no 
day of commencement be named in the 
creation of this estate, it begins from the 
making or delivery of the lease. A lease 
for so many years as such an one shall live, 
is void from the beginning, for it is neither 
certain, nor can it ever be reduced to a 
certainty, during the continuance of the 
lease. And the same doctrine holds, if a 
parson make a lease of his glebe for so 
many years as he shall continue parson of 
such a church, for this is still more uncertain. 
But a lease for twenty or more years, if the 
parson shall so long live, or if he shall so 
long continue parson, is good ; for there is a 
certain period fixed, beyond which it can- 
not last, though it may determine sooner, 
on the parson’s death, or his ceasing to be 
parson there. 
An estate for years, though never so 
many, is inferior to an estate for life. For 
as estate for life, though it be only for .the 
life of another person, is a freehold ; but an 
estate, though it be for a thousand years, 
is only a chattel, and reckoned part of the 
personal estate. For no estate of freehold 
can commence infuturo, because it cannot 
be created at common law without livery of 
seisin, or corporal possession of the land ; 
and corporal possession cannot be given of 
an estate now, which is not to commence 
now, but hereafter. And because no livery 
of seisin is necessary for a lease for years, 
inch a lessee is not said to be seised, or to 
