In English law

English law

English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...

, estovers is wood that a tenant

Leasehold estate

A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....

 is allowed to take, for life or a period of years, from the land he holds for the repair of his house

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

, the implements of husbandry, hedges and fence

Fence

A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage .Fences...

s, and for firewood

Firewood

Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....

.

The word derives the from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 estover, estovoir, a verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

 used as a substantive meaning "that which is necessary". This word is of disputed origin; it has been referred to the Latin stare, to stand, or studere, to desire.

The old English word for estover was bote or boot, also spelled bot or bót, (literally meaning good or profit, the same word as seen in "better"). The various kinds of estovers were known as house-bote, cart or plough-bote, hedge or hay-bote, and fire-bote. Anglo-Saxon law

Anglo-Saxon law

Anglo-Saxon law is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early Scandinavian law and continental Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought...

 also imposed "bot" fines in the modern sense of compensation. These rights might be restricted by express covenants. Copyhold

Copyhold

At its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....

ers had similar rights over the land they occupied and over the waste of the manor, in which case the rights are known as Commons of estovers.