a total divorce, obtained from an ecclesiastical court, declaring a marriage null and void.
Abkari
excise duty on the sale or consumption of spirituous liquors in India.
Alnage
inspection of cloth, measured by the ell.
Amerciaments
pecuniary punishments at the discretion of a court, rather than fixed amounts.
Annicut (or anicut)
dam or weir across a river in India.
Annoyance jury (Westminster)
a jury appointed by the Burgesses Court of Westminster (the borough court responsible for streets, police and markets). The Annoyance Jury levied presentments, and Westminster householders paid an amerciament (q.v.) to escape this jury service.
Arrestment
a process which prohibits a debtor from making payments to his creditor until a debt due by the creditor to the arrester is paid (Scots law).
Banco
sittings of superior courts of law for the purpose of determining points of law.
Barracoons
slave depots.
Bonshmen
Bushmen (?)
Bottomry
a contract by which money is borrowed on the security of a ship (or 'bottom').
Bude light
a gas light invented by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney.
Burgesses Court (Westminster)
the borough court responsible for streets, police and markets.
Butlerage
a duty on imported wine paid to the monarch's butler.
Cabriolet
a light, two-wheeled carriage.
Cadastral (Cadastre)
a register of lands for fiscal purposes.
Capias ad satisfaciendum
a writ for the arrest of a judgment debtor in a civil action when judgment is not satisfied.
Capias ut legatum (or ut lagatum)
a writ for the arrest of an outlaw.
Caplin (or capelin)
small fish of the smelt family, used as bait.
Captions
formal warrants to apprehend a debtor or other defaulting obligant, after the issue of a letter of horning had been executed (in the Bill Chamber).
Certiorari
a writ by which causes are removed from an inferior court into the High Court of Justice.
Cess
a local rate or tax.
Cessio bonorum
where a debtor surrenders his property to a creditor in lieu of an execution against his person, to protect himself against imprisonment.
Coculus (or Cocculus) indicus
a drug derived from dried berries (anamiria cocculus), used in the adulteration of beer and porter.
Compters, borough
debtors' prisons attached to the court of the mayor or sheriff of a borough.
Conacre
the letting of land in Ireland in small portions for a single crop, for a rent either in money or in labour.
Congé d'Elire
the crown's formal permission to a dean and chapter for it to elect a certain person as its bishop.
Cost-book (mines)
a partnership for working a mine according to local customs of the district where the mine is situated, the agreement being written in a cost-book.
Court-leet
a court of record held in a manor before the lord or his steward.
Coverture
the condition of a married woman being legally deemed to be under the protection of her husband.
Crimping
the impressment of seamen.
Cubic nitre
sodium nitrate, or Chile saltpetre.
Currier
a dresser of tanned leather.
Curtilages
courts attached to dwelling-houses.
Custos
a keeper, protector or guardian.
Custos rotulorum
the keeper of the rolls or records of a county. The first civil officer of the county, appointing the clerks of the peace.
Dacoity
brigandage.
Damage feasant
damage caused by animals grazing on another's land without his leave, the latter having the right to impound and distrain such animals.
Dari
Indian millet.
De lunatico inquirendo
a writ or process issued to inquire into the state or condition of a person's mind.
Decreets
court judgments in Scotland.
Dedimus
a writ commissioning someone, not a judge, to act as a judge.
Denization
the act of making one a citizen.
Deodand
a personal chattel forfeited to the crown after causing the accidental or otherwise death of a human being. A right often passed to the lord of the manor. Abolished in 1862.
Distraint
seizure of goods in payment of a debt.
Distringas
a writ directing a sheriff or other officer to distrain.
Dower
an endowment, jointure or dowry bestowed by a husband on his wife, to be enjoyed after his death.
Droits
legal claims on land.
Emblements
crops raised by the labour of the cultivator, excluding tree fruits and grass.
Enam (or inam)
grant of land free of land-tax in India.
Engrossing
buying in large quantities in order to control market prices.
Ensilage
the storage of green fodder in silos.
Ex capite lecti, Reductions
judicial annulments of deeds or contracts under which the defender claims rights prejudicial to the pursuer's rights, relating to the law of death bed (Scots law).
Excambions
exchanges of land (Scots law).
Farcy
a chronic form of glanders.
Fasli
in India, an era or calendar year (similar to A.D.)
Femes coverts
married women.
Feu
in Scottish law a tenure based on payment in grain or money; the right to use land, houses, etc. in perpetuity in return for a stipulated annual payment.
Feuars
persons holding real estate in consideration of payment of a feu duty.
Fiars
prices of grain legally struck or fixed for a year to regulate the payment of rent, etc. (Scots law).
Filacer
officer of the Courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench and Exchequer who files writs and issues process thereon. Abolished in 1837.
Forestalling
buying a commodity before it reaches the market, in order to re-sell at a higher price.
Gale
periodic payment of rent.
Gavelkind
a tenure by which lands descended to all sons in equal portions, and not by primogeniture.
Haggards
stock-yards.
Hanaper
a department of Chancery (common law jurisdiction).
Heriot
a fine due to a lord of the manor on the death of a tenant.
Heritors
landholders in Scottish parishes, liable to public burdens.
Hornings
decrees from Scottish courts to messengers-at-arms, ordering them to charge debtors to pay or perform within a certain time, on pain of outlawry.
Houghing
hamstringing.
Hypothec
a lien or security over goods in respect of a debt due by the owner of the goods (Scots law).
Hypothecation
placing or assigning as security under an arrangement.
Inam (or enam)
grant of land free of land-tax in India.
Jerupiga (or jeropiga)
a cheap Portuguese wine.
Jura Regalia
sovereign rights, including criminal jurisdiction, owned by a county palatine (i.e. Lancaster, Chester and Durham).
Jurats
sworn officers, acting as magistrates.
Lammas
the season of first fruits on 1st August.
Latitat
a writ based on the assumption that the person summoned is in hiding. Abolished in 1832.
Lazaret
a place of quarantine.
Legitim
the portion to which children are entitled out of their deceased father's moveable estate (Scots law).
Lite(s) pendente(s)
pending the suit(s).
Lithofracteur
an explosive compound of nitroglycerine.
Madrissa (or Madrassa)
a Mohammedan college.
Mamlatdars
the head revenue and police officers of a district in India.
Mandamus
a writ or command issued by a higher court of law to a lower court to compel the performance of a duty, imposed by common law or statute.
Mesne
intermediate.
Messuages
dwellings and offices with adjoining lands appropriated to the household; a mansion-house and grounds.
Metage
the official weighing of coal, grain etc. and the charge made for it, especially by the corporation of the City of London.
Misprision
criminal oversight or neglect in respect of a crime of another person.
Modus decimandi
a special method of paying tithes, otherwise than the general rule.
Mohurrum (or Moharram)
the first month of the Mohammedan year; a public procession during the fast, or festival.
Moonlighting
the commission of agrarian outrages at night in Ireland, circa 1880.
Mortmain
the transfer of property to a corporation, e.g. a charity, or to someone who may never part with it again (literally 'dead hand'); property given to a religious house.
Nisi prius
jury sittings in civil causes; or actions tried by jury before a single judge.
Notour
well-known, notorious (Scots law).
Nux vomica
the seed producing strychnine.
Obeah (or obi)
witchcraft practised in West Indies and Guiana.
Octroi duties
tolls or taxes levied at the gates of a city on articles brought in. (Also the commercial privilege of exclusive trading.)
Pentice Court (Chester)
civil court held in Chester before the Mayor and Recorder, and before the Sheriff.
Peveril (or Peverel) Court (Nottinghamshire)
a court of honour or lordship exercising jurisdiction in the counties of Nottingham and Derby together with the respective county courts.
Poindings
distraints (Scots law).
Poligars
in southern India, holders of feudal estates; the subordinate feudal chief and his followers.
Pollan
an Irish white-fish.
Pontage
a tax for repairing bridges.
Portmote Court
a borough court held in a port or harbour.
Posteas
formal statements giving an account of proceedings at the trial of an action.
Pound breach
the act of taking goods out of a pound before the distrainor's claim is satisfied.
Pratique
permission to proceed or to trade after a period of quarantine on obtaining a clean bill of health.
Prescription
the limitation of the time within which an action may be taken.
Prisage
the right of the crown to two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more.
Prothonotary
the chief clerk or registrar of a court.
Pupils
in Scots law, boys up to the age of 14 years and girls up to the age of 12.
Quare impedit
a possessory action to recover a presentation, when a patron's right is disturbed, or to try a disputed title to an advowson; or against a bishop who refuses to admit a clerk on the ground of unfitness.
Quoad sacra
a parish disjoined for ecclesiastical purposes only.
Quod omnia (or quoad omnia)
in respect of all things.
Rapparees
Irish plunderers.
Regium donum
an annual grant of public money to non-conformist ministers, especially in Ireland.
Regrating
buying and selling again in the same market to force up prices.
Remedies against the Hundred
when damage was done to property by persons riotously or tumultuously assembled, the inhabitants of the hundred in which the offence was committed were liable to pay full compensation. Changed in 1886 to the police district.
Replevins
writs or actions to recover or restore to an owner, after distraint, upon a pledge to try the right at law.
Rescue
an act of forcibly freeing a person from arrest or imprisonment, or goods from distraint in cases of damage feasant (q.v.).
Ribbon Society (Ribbonmen)
an Irish secret society, circa 1835-55, opposed to the Orange order; distinguished by a green ribbon.
Rogue money
an assessment in Scotland for the expense of catching, prosecuting and maintaining criminals.
Ryots
Indian peasants.
Saniyasi (or sanyasi)
religious mendicants in India, followers of Siva.
Sasine (or seisin)
the act of giving legal possession of feudal property (Scots law).
Sayer
transit or excise duties in India.
Scavage
a toll levied in boroughs on goods offered for sale by outsiders.
Shebeening
keeping an illicit liquor-shop.
Slob land
mud flats.
Socage
a tenure of lands by a service fixed and determinate in quality.
Sonthals
a small native tribe, commonly used as labourers in the Bengal indigo and Assam tea plantations.
Soubadar (or subahdar)
the governor of a subah, or province; or the chief native officer of a company of sepoys.
Spelter
impure zinc.
Stent
a tax, valuation or assessment in Scotland.
Sudder
chief, or supreme.
Sycee
silver ingots used as money in China.
Tacks
tenures or leases (Scots law).
Tacksmen
lessees (Scots law).
Tailzies
entails (Scots law).
Tawer
a maker of white leather.
Teinds
Scottish tithes.
Ticket of leave
a licence to be at large before the expiry of a sentence.
Tontines
a scheme of life annuity, devised by Lorenzo Tonti, whereby the value increases as the subscribers die.
Trolling
fishing with a revolving lure.
Turbary
the right to take peat from another's land.
Ultimus haeres
the reversion of an estate to the crown or the state, where there is no heir or next of kin.
Whiteboy Acts
Acts for the suppression of an association of Irishmen, first formed in County Tipperary in 1761 for the redress of grievances. They operated at night, and were distinguished by white shirts.
Zillah
an Indian administrative district.