Livery of seisin is an archaic legal ceremony, once practice in England and in other countries following English common law, to convey property. The common law in those jurisdictions once provided that a valid conveyance of a fee interest in land required the physical transfer by the transferor to the transferee,in the presence of witnesses, of a piece of the ground (often, in the literal sense of a hand-to-hand passing of an amount of soil), a twig, key, or other symbol.