Maiden
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
An instrument formerly used in Scotland for beheading criminals. It consisted of a broad piece of iron, about a foot square, very sharp in the lower part, and loaded above with lead. At the time of execution it was pulled up to the top of a frame about ten feet high, with a groove on each side for the maiden to slide in. The prisoner's neck being fastened to a bar underneath, and the sign given, the maiden was let loose, and the head instantly severed from the body. It was the prototype of the French guillotine. Wharton. capital conviction takes place, no prisoner is condemned to die. In such a case, the sheriff of the coimty presents the judges with white gloves. Encyc. Lond.; I'omlins; Wharton; Brown. At the present day, when the number of capital offences is so much fewer than it was, a maiden assise is understood to be one at which there are no prisoners to be tried. Mozley ^ W.
Maiden rent
A fee payable by the tenants of some feudal manors, to the lord, upon the marriage of the tenant's daughter. One account of its origin is that it was a commutation for the lord's relinquishment of a still earlier right of lying with the daughter on the first night after the marriage. Other explanations are to the effect that it was only a pecuniary exaction, like any other item of feudal revenues.