To distribute or divide, used in particular of property in a person's will. Thus an inheritor is devised land in another's will. The word is used in the rather sad will of Edward VI (d. 1553), which is headed 'My devise for the succession' and opens with the words 'For lakke of issu (masle) of my body' [< Lat. divido = to divide] -
Cf. Device
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.