At its origin in mediaevalEngland, Copyholdtenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manor court.
Copyholds were gradually enfranchised (turned into ordinary holdings of land—either freehold or 999-year leasehold) during the 19th century. Legislation in the 1920s finally extinguished the last of them.
For further information see Manorial Law (1996) by Andrew Barsby.
Copyhold is necessarily parcel of a manor, and the freehold is said to be in the lord of the manor.
Hence it appears that the existence of copyholdtenures may sometimes be traced by the total absence of timber from such lands, while on freeholdlands it grows in abundance.
The custom dates from the time when all the copyholder's property, including the copyholder himself, belonged to the lord, and is supposed to have been fixed by way of analogy to the custom which gave a military tenant's habiliments to his lord in order to equip his successor.
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