Glossary
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
A
ACTOR. The plaintiff as taking the leading part in the suit.
AFFRI. Commonly only plough-horses, though also including bullocks, like averia.
AGUICIUM (p. 232). Strig, cf. aguileta.
ALTERAGIUM = ALTARIUM; including the sources of the income of the minister, qui deservit altari.
AISIAMENTA. Easments, such as rights of way or water on the land of others.
APICES. Originally used for imperial decrees, then for papal or other official letters.
APOSTOLI. Statement of cases forwarded by a judge to a higher court after notice of appeal. Also used for letters dimissory.
APPORTUS. Any addition to the ordinary income of the clergy provided by the offerings of the people.
AURAINARE, ARRAMARE, with assisam. To take technical proceedings for holding a court of assize. From O.F. arramer.
ASSIZE NOVAE DISSEISINAE. A remedy by royal writ for a person dispossessed of his free tenement without a judgment.
ASSISA DE ULTIMA PRESENTATIONS. A possessory action, the principle of which was, "he that presented to a benefice the last time shall present this time also, but without prejudice to any question of right." Pollock and Maitland, English Law I., 127.
ASSART. Land recently cleared of wood. Variously derived from exaratum or exertum.
AVERIA. Farm animals used for draught, like affri. Also in the wider sense of property (aver, habere, wares).
AVERPENY. Payment to secure immunity from the obligation to provide horse and cart to the crown for transport.
B
BANDERIA. Flag or banner.
BILETTUS. A little schedule: dim. of billa.
BLESSAGHA. Apparently used on p. 250 for a forge. Ducange quotes the passage, but gives no explanation.
BLODWITE. Fine for bloodshedding.
BOARIA. Cattle sheds.
BORDHALFPENY = BORTHSELVER. A fee paid for the erection of boards or stalls in fairs and markets.
BRUSSETUM. Brushwood.
BUNDA. A terminal mark to distinguish landed property.
BURGAGIUM. A tenement held of the lord at a fixed rent in a borough.
C
CABLICIUS. Windfall: more widely used for brushwood.
CARIAGIUM = CARUCAGIUM. An impost levied on each ploughland; cepit rex carucagium dc 2 marcis de caruca ad maritagium sororis suae. Mat. Par., II. 3.
CELARARIUS = CELLARIUS. A monastic ofiicial qui cellae vinariae et escariae praest.
CHIROGRAPHUM. A manuscript, commonly an indented charter.
CHIROTHECA. Glove.
CHRYSMA. Oil for baptism and extreme unction previously blessed by a bishop.
CHYSTCORN (p. 64). Perhaps for churchcorn, like churchset, chiricseat.
COMPANAGIUM. Any other food eaten as a relish with bread.
COMPLETORIUM. The ecclesiastical office which closed the services of the day. Complenda, Compline.
COMPROMISSUM. A mutual agreement of two or more to refer a question in dispute to arbitration. Applied by convents and cardinals to the choice of a few to determine an election.
CONSTITUTIO DE DUABUS DIETIS. A provision of the Lateran Council (Acta, c. 37), de litteris non impetrandis ultra duas dietas (day's journey).
CONTEMPLATIO. Kindly regard for a person.
CONVENTIONALIS LIBELLUS. Charters of agreements.
CONVERSI. Lay brethren attached to a monastery, and usually engaged in manual labour.
COOPERTUS, with equus. A horse with saddle and trappings complete.
COPERONES. The loppings of trees.
CORRODIUM. In Blount's Law Dictionary and elsewhere a corrody is defined as an allowance made to one of the King's servants by a religious house which he or his predecessors had founded; but its use was much wider, as that of a pension in a monastery bought often by the pensioner himself. See examples in app. vi. of the Obedientiary Rolls of St. Swithun's, Winchester.
CRASSETUM. A lamp provided with tallow or grease (crussa).
CROFTA. A small piece of ground adjoining a house.
CURIALITAS. Courtesy, liberality, good cheer given at special seasons.
CURTILAGE. A backside or yard attached to a dwelling for hemp or vegetables.
CUSTUMARIUS = CONSUETUDINARIUS. A tenant holding according to the custom of the manor.
D
DARREIN PRESENTMENT. See assisa de ult. pres.
DECIMAE GROSSES. The great tithes, as distinguished from the minutae, which were assigned to the maintenance of a vicar.
DENARII CARITATIS. Extra allowances given at special times.
DENARII SPONSALES. Marriage offerings made in church by bridal parties.
DIETA. A single day's journey. See constitutio de d. d.
DIRATIONARE. To make good a legal claim.
DISCOLUS. Unruly, undisciplined, as used for Oxford scholars.
DISMAS (p. 124). In MS. de cruce dismas et gesmas, but ? meaning.
DIVADIARE. To redeem a pledge, take out of pawn.
DIVISAE. Territorial limits. Used later for lands devised by will.
E
ESSART. See assart.
ESSOIN. A formal excuse for non-appearance in court.
ESTOVERIUM = stuff or material. In Bracton taken for food, as salvo, quamdiu erit in prisona, rationabili estoverio suo; later used for timber as for husbote.
EXCEPCIO. A stay or stop to any action. For various forms, including that of non numerate pecuniae, see Inst. Just. in contractibus.
EXPEDITARE. To cut out the ball of the forefeet in " the lawing of dogs" for the protection of game in the royal forests.
EXTRACTAE. Copies of records; estreats.
F
FERIA, a fair; also a day of the week; sexta feria = Friday, like sexta feira in Portuguese.
FEUTERER. Felt-maker, feutrier. Otherwise explained as a form of vaultrier, one who leads a lime hound for the chase. Cf. veltro.
FINIS. amicabilis compositio et finalis concordia ex consensu domini vel ejus justitiariorum. Glanville. Hence the "feet of fines", or terms agreed upon and expressed at the end of a document. Also money paid for a royal licence to transfer land, and generally a penalty imposed.
FLEDWITE. A fine for runaways and outlaws.
FLEMENSWITE. The seizure of the chattels of a runaway slave or outlaw.
FLITWITE. Penalty for violence in public.
FLUTWITE. The purchase of the discharge of a fugitive from penalty.
FORLOTELAND (p. 232). Land belonging to the see of Hereford which was leased for the term of the bishops' continuance in office there. This land retained the name even after the system of tenure was disused.
FORSTAL. The offence of buying up provisions on the way to market in order to raise prices. The earlier meaning seems to be an assault on the king's highway.
FRANCUS PLEGIUS. A free man's pledge; each member of a tithing acting as a surety for the rest for the maintenance of the peace.
FRATERIA. Used in p. 253 for a collection for the support of friars or other religious communities. More commonly the community itself.
FRIDWITE. Fine to secure indemnity.
FRITHBRECH. Breach of peace.
G
GARCIO. Young man, groom, gars, garcon.
GAUNTER Glover = Gauntlet.
GESMAS (p. 124). See dismas.
GRAVA. A covert fenced in with hedge or ditch = Grove.
GRITHBRECH. Breach of peace.
GURGES. The deep water of a weir.
H
HAMSOCNA. Assault on a man's dwelling house.
HVNGEWITE. Penalty for the illegal execution of a criminal, or immunity in such a case.
HAYBOTE. Wood allowed for fences.
HERIOT. The best beast of a deceased tenant paid by the heir to the lord.
HIDA. A variable measure of landed property, supposed to be as much as could be cultivated with one plough.
HIDAGIUM. Tax levied on each hide of land.
HORAE. The ecclesiastical offices prescribed for daily use.
HORNGELD. A payment required for horned cattle, especially in royal forests.
HUNDREDSPENY. The contribution to the sheriff from each hundred.
HUSBOTE. Allowance of timber.
I
INDICCIO. A cycle of 15 years, beginning from 313 A.D.
INFANGENETHEF. Right of jurisdiction in the case of thieves taken in a man's land.
INSTAURUM. The live stock of a manor.
INTERMINACIO. Threat.
J
K
L
LAETARE JERUSALEM. The introit of the Fourth Sunday in Lent.
LAIRWITE. The right to punish for adultery or incontinence.
LAUDUM. The award or sentence of an arbitrator.
LIBERTATES. The local range of municipal privileges.
M
MEDIAMEN. Land forming an island in the midstream of a river.
MEREMIUM. Timber, from materiamen.
MOLTURA. The portion of the tenant's corn taken by the miller as the payment for grinding the whole.
MORTARIOLUM (p. 337). Apparently a lamp of some kind.
MURDRUM. Death by an unknown hand. If the slayer was not produced the hundred might be fined, unless the kinsmen of the dead man came forward to present his "Englishry," or prove him to be an Englishman by birth.
N
NAMIUM. Goods distrained upon. Vetitum namium was the refusal to deliver up a distress under pledge of security. Placita de vetito namio, actions of replevin when such refusal was alleged.
NAYVITAS. The status of servile tenure.
O
OBEDIENTIARII. The official members of a religious house who commonly had their distinct sources of income and presented separate accounts.
OCCASIO. Molestation or prejudice to the interests of anyone.
ORDALE. The ordeal of fire or water as customary for freeman and villeins.
ORESTE. A wager of battle in judicial forms.
ORFRAIES. From aurifrisium, embroidered cloth of gold worn by the king's guard, and afterwards applied more widely.
P
PANNAGE. Payment tor the food of swine in woods, or the right to send them there.
PASTOR. ego sum p. bonus. The office for the first Sunday after Easter.
PATRIA. A man's neighbours, as in the appeal for a jury, ponit se super patrium.
PESSONA. The acorns and nuts used as food for swine in forest lands.
PONTAGIUM. Payment levied for repairing bridges.
PRIMICERIUS. A term used originally in the imperial household for the highest in dignity in any class, afterwards extended to ecclesiastical status.
PROCURATIO. Food supplied or money paid at the visitation of bishop or archdeacon.
Q
QUARELLUS. Bolt of a crossbow.
QUATERNUS. Bundles of leaves, properly four; Fr. cahier.
R
RATIHABITACIO. Confirmation.
RECOGNITORES. Jurymen appointed to inquire into the truth of claims or statements made.
RECONCILIARE. To consecrate anew sacred buildings or cemeteries which had been polluted by violence and bloodshed.
REDDITUS ASSISAE, or ASSISUS. The fixed rents of freeholders or ancient copyholders.
REGARDUM. The official inquiry in the royal forests of all offences of vert, venison, concealments and defaults (Manwood Forest Law).
RELEVIUM. Money paid by heirs to recover possession of land which had fallen to the chief lord at the death of a tenant.
REMEMORATOR. The remembrancer, so called because it was his duty to recall to the mind of the lord treasurer or justices such things as were to be dealt with in the king s behalf.
RESCUSSIO. Illegal recovery of goods distrained, or interference with arrests.
S
SAC. The privilege of holding a court of tenants or vassals.
SALUS POPULI. Introit for the 18th Sunday after Trinity.
SCOT. A customary contribution levied on all according to their ability.
SCUTAGE. Aii impost on those who held land by knight s service for the maintenance of the king's army.
SECTA. Suit or service to the court baron (ad curiam), or county court (schiram), or obligation to use the lord's mill (molendini).
SELIO. The ridge of land between two furrows: of no certain quantity.
SENAGIUM. Money paid to a bishop or archdeacon at an Easter visitation.
SICHETUS. A little stream of water which would be dry in summer.
SITIENTES. The introit for the Saturday after "Laetare" Sunday.
SOC. A seigneury or lordship. Sac and soc together describe the jurisdiction of a lord of a manor.
SOLARIUM. An upper room. Shopa cum solario superedificato.
SOLIDATA. Landed interest worth one shilling yearly.
SPECIES. Groceries of different sorts and also drugs sold by spicers.
STALLAGIUM. Money paid for the licence to put up stalls in a fair or market.
SUMMA. A horse load, or seam, of varying quantity.
SUMMAGIUM. Toll for transport on horseback.
T
TALLAGIUM. Taxes or enforced contributions for any object. Cf. tailler, tagliare.
TEAM. The right to hold a court into which outsiders may be vouched as warrantors. Pollock and Maitland, E. L., i. 566.
TETHINGPENY. Money paid to the sheriff by each tithing of the county.
TRIENNALE. An office of 30 masses for 30 days after a death, of which the 3rd, 7th, and 30th were especially solemn.
U
UTFANGENETHEF. Eight of jurisdiction over thieves caught outside the manor.
V
VADIUM. Pledge.
VENTICIUM=VENTRITICUM, with molendinum. Windmill.
VETITUM NAMIUM. See namium.
VIRGATA. Yardland, of varying extent according to local usage.
VIRIDARIUS. A judicial officer sworn to keep the assize of the royal forests and enroll the attachments of trespassers. See Manwood Forest Law.
VISNETUM. Men of the same hundred or county. Of the twelve legal men of a jury one half might he taken from outside the hundred.
W
WAPENTAK. A division of a county as in Yorkshire.
WARDEPENY. Payment to provide for watch and ward.
WARDFEOH. Money paid to a lord for the emancipation of a ward.
WARRANTO QUO. A writ that lies against one who may have usurped a franchise to the prejudice of the king's rights. Such writs were issued when inquiry was made by Edward I into the titles of the lords to the privileges recorded in the Hundred Rolls.
WARRENA LIBRA. The privilege of having on the land for private uses hares and rabbits, partridges and pheasants.
WERRUR. Glazier, verrier.
WEYFF. Right to the goods stolen or left behind by a thief as also to the forfeited goods of a felon.
X
Y
YCONOMUS. Advocate, as in Mat. Par., summus secularium aconomus et protector ecclesiae.