A Dictionary of Law

In the civil law. <A ditch; a receptacle of water, madeby hand. Dig. 43, 14, 1, 5. In old Englishlaw. Aditch. A pit full of water, in which women committing felony were drowned. A

In old English law. M pairing the moat or ditch round a fortified town.

In old English law. Fosse-work; or the service of laboring, done by inhabitants and adjoining tenants, for the repair and maintenance of the ditches round a city or town, for which

A dyke, ditch, or trench; a place inclosed by a ditch; a moat; a canal.

Asmall ditch. Cowell.

or FOSSH. One of the four ancient Roman ways through England. Spelman.

<An ancient custom in Ireland, in which persons put away their children to fosterers. Fostering was held to be a stronger alliance than blvod, and the foster children participated

Land given, assigned, or allotted to the finding of ?ood or victuals for any person or persons; as in monasteries for the monks, etc. Cowell; Bluunt.

The remuneration fixed for the rearing of a fosler child; also the jointure of a wife. Jacob.

In the civil law. The produce of animals, and the fruit of other property, which are acquired to the owner of such animals and property by virtue of his right. Bowyer, Mod. Civil L

In Hindulaw. Under the Mogul government a magistrate of the police over a large district, who took cognizance of all criminal matters within his jurisdiction, and sometimes was emp

In Hindu law. A tribunal for administering criminal law.

The founding or building of a college or hospital. The incorporation or endowment of a college or huspilial is the foundation; and he who endows it with land or other property is t

The person whu endows an eleemosynary corporation or institution, or supplies the funds for its establishment.

Founderous; out of repair, as aroad. Cro. Car. 366.

A deserted or exposed infant; a child found without a parent or guardian, its relatives being unknown, It has a settlement in the district where found. for taking care of infants f

In old Frenchlaw. An oven or bake-house. Four banal, an oven, owned by the seignior of the estate, to which the tenants were obliged to bring their bread for baking. Also the propr

Fr. To fork. This was a method of delaying an action anciently resorted to by defendants when two of them were joined in the suit. Instead of appearing together, each would appear

Theact of delaying legal proceedings. Termes de la Ley.

The face of a writteninstrument. That whichis contained on the face of a deed (without any aid from the knowledge of the cireumstances under which it is made) is said to be within

A form of socialism. See 1 Mill, Pol. Ke. 260.

The seas surrounding England. These were divided into the Western, including the Scotch and Irish; the Northern, or North sea; the Eastern, being the German ocean; the Southern, be

Such fowls as are preserved under the game laws in warrens, According to Manwood, these are partridges and pheasants. According to Coke, they are partridges, rails, quails, woodcoc

In English law. This was the statute 52 Geo. III. c. 60, which secured to juries, upon the trial of indietments for libel, the right of pronouncing a general verdict of guilly or n

Anecelesiastical court. Thespirifual jurisdiction, as distinguished from the secular.

A breaking; division; fraction; a portion of a thing less than the whole.

A breaking, or breaking up; a fragment or broken part; a portion of a thing, less than the whole.

A portion of a day. The dividing aday. Generally, the law does not allow the fraction of a day. 2 Bl. Comm. 141, Fractionem diei non recipit lex. Lofft, 572. The law does not take

Arable land. Mon. Angi.

The breaking or wreck of ships; the same as naufragium, (9. %)

Fr. Expense; charges; costs. Frats d'un proc?s, costs of a suit.

In French and Canadian law. Costs incurred incidentally to the action.

Fr. In French commercial law. Expenses to the bourd; expenses incurred on a shipment of goods, in packing, cartage, commissions, étc., up tu the point where they are actually put o

A French coin of the value of 4 little over eighteen cents.

In French feudal law. An allod; a free inheritance; or an estate held free of any services except such as were due to the sovereign.

A freeman. Chart. Hen. IV. A free tenant. Spelman.

A special privilege conferred by government upon an individual, and which does not belong to the citizens of the country generally, of common right. It is essential to the characte

France. Bract. fol. 4276.

Aman born in France. A designation formerly given to aliens in England.

Free; a freeman; a Frank. Spelman.

Free bench, (q- 2.)

In old European law. A freeman. Domesday.

In old English law. <A frank pledge, or free pledge. See

adj. Inold Englishlaw. Free. Occurring in several compounds.

In Englishlaw Free alms. A spiritnal tenure whereby religious corporations, aggregate or sole, held Janis of the donor to them and their succeasors forever, They were discharged of

In old English law. Free bench, Litt. § 166; Co. Litt. 1108. See Frer-Bencu.

A liberty of free chase enjoyed by any one, whereby all other persons having ground within that compass are forbidden to cut down wood, etc., even in their own demesnes, to the pre

Freehold lands exempted from all services, but not from homage; lands held otherwise than in ancient de. mesne. That which a man holds to himself and his lieirs, and not by such se

In English law. A species of estate held in socage, said by Lritton to be “lands and tenements whereof the nature of the fee is changed by feoffment out of chivalry for certain yea

In old English law. Free-fold; a privilege for the lord to have all the sheep of his tenants and the inhabitants within his seigniory, in his fold, in his demesnes, to manure his l

The privilege of sending certain matter through the public mails without payment of postage, in pursuance of a personal or official privilege,

An obsolete expression signifying the rights and privileges of a citizen, or the liberties and civic rights of a freeman.

In old English law, A pledge or surety for freemen; that is, the pledge, or corporate responsibility, of all the inhabitants of a tithing for the general good behavior of each free

A freeholder. Litt. § 91.

In English law. A free tenement, freeliolding, or freehold. 2 Bl. Comm. 61, 62, 104; 1 Steph. Comm. 217; Braet. fol. 207, Used to denote both the tenure and the estate.

Doer; maker. Feasors del esictute, makers of the statute. Dyer, 38.

In old Englishiaw. A wood or wood-ground where ash-trees grow. Co. Litt. 46.

In old records. <A fraternity, brotherhood, or society of religious per sons, who were mutually bound to pray for the good health and life, etc., of their living brethren, and the

“Some people of a place united together, in respect of a mystery and business, intoa company.” 1 Salk. 193,

Sworn brothers or companions for the defense of their sovereign, or for other purposes. Hoved. 445.

In old English law. Certain friars who wore white and black giurments. Walsingham, 124.

A younger brother’s inheritance.

One who has Killed a brother or sister; also the killing ofa brother or sister.

In thecivillaw. ‘To deceive, cheat, or impose upon; to defraud.

Actual, positive, intentional fraud. Fraud disclosed by matters of fact, as distinguisiied from construct ive fraud or fraud in law.

Fraud In contemplation of law; fraud implied or inferred by law; fraud made out by construction of law, as distinguished from fraud found by a jury from matier of fact; constructiv

STATUTE OF. This is the common designation of a very celebrated English statute, (29 Car, II. ¢. 3,) passed in 1677, and which has been adopted, in a more or lesa modified form, in

A conveyance or transter of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach. Every transfer of property or

In Inglish law. Every conveyance or transfer of property or charge thereon made, every judgment made, every obligation incurred, and every judicial proceeding taken or suffered by

FRAUNCHH, FRAUNKE., See FRang,

Tat. Fraud. More commonly enlled, in the civil law, “dolws” and “dolus malus,”(q.0.) A distinction, however, was sometimes made between “ fraus” and “dulus;” the former being held

Lat. In the civil law. Fraud of law; fraud upon law. See In

Afreeholder. See Fr RaNK-TENEMENT.

In old English law. A wood of ashes; a place where ashes grow. Co. Litt. 40; Shep. Touch. 95.

See Arrray.

A list of persons admitted as burgesses or freemen for the purposes of the rights reserved by the municipal corporation act, (5 & 6 Wm, IY, ce. 76.) Distinguished from the Burgess

In old English law. A liberty to hold conrts and take up the fines for beating and wounding. To be tree from fines. Cowell.

Sanctuaries; seats of peace.

A fine paid for obtaining pardon when the peace had been broken. Spelman; Blount. A sum paid the magistrate for protection against the right of revenge.

1. Unconstrained; having power to follow the dictates of his own will. Not subject to the dominion of another, Not compelled to involuntary servitude. Used in years; in distinction

The name of a species of tenure, See Fr Rank-ALMOIGNE.

A widow’s dower out of copyholds to which she is entitled by the custom of some manors. It isregarded as an excrescence growing out of the husband's interest, and is indeed a conti

In old records, An allowanee of land over and above a certain limit or boundary, as so inuch beyond or without afence. Cowell; Blount. The right of claiming that quantity. Termes d

Such great men as did not engage, like the frank-pledge men, for their decennicr. Jacob.

In English ecclesiastical law. A place of worship, so called beeause not liable to the visitation of the ordinary. It is always of royal foundation, or founded at least by private

Inadmiraltylaw. A vessel having the wind from a favorable quarter is said to sail on a “froe course.”

Ink Koman law. One who was set free from a state of bondage; an emancipated slave. The word is used in

The state of being free; liberty; seif-determination: absence of restraint; the opposite of slavery. The power of acting, in the character of a moral personality, according to the

A franchise in the hands of a subject. existing by grant or prescription, distinct from an ownership in the soil. It is an exclusive right, and applies to a public navigable river,

A person who possesses a freehold estate.

In American law. The name of a court formerly established in South Carolina for the trial of slaves and free persons of color for criminal offenses.

A freehold which bas descended toa man, upon which he may enter at pleasure, but which he has not entered on. Termes de la Ley.

Societies in England designed for the purpose of enabling mechanics, artisans, and other working-men to purchase at the least possible price a piece of freehold land of a sufficien

This word has had various meanings at different stages of history. In the Roman law, it denoted one who was either Lorn free or emancipated, and was the opposite of “slave.” In feu

A sale of goods “free on board” imports that they are to be delivered on board the cars, vessel, ete., without expense to the buyer for packing, cartage, or olher such charges. In

In feudal and old English law. Such feudal services as were not unbecoming the character of a soldier or a freeman to perform; as to serve under his lord in the wars, to pay a sum

In international law. Ships of a neutral nation, ‘Fhe phrase “free ships shall make free goods” is often inserted in treaties, meaning that goods, even though belonging to an enemy

In English law. A tenure of lands by certain free and honorable services, (such as fealty and rent,) and which are liquidated and reduced toa certainty. It was called “free socage”

In old English law. Tenants in free socage. Glanv. lib. 3, c. 7; 2 Bl. Comm. 79.