Black's Law Dictionary

One authorized by law to issue its own notes intended to circulate as money. Bank v. Gruber, 87 Pa. 471, 30 Am. Rep. 378.

A person who has committed an act of bankruptcy; one who has done some act or suffered some act to be done in consequence of which, under the laws of his country, he is liable to b

1. The state .or condition of one who is a bankrupt; amenability to the bankrupt laws; the condition of one who has committed an act of bankruptcy, and is liable to be proceeded ag

The term includes all proceedings in a federal court having jurisdiction in bankruptcy, founded on a petition in bankruptcy and either directly or collaterally involved in the adju

A law relating to bankrupts and the procedure against them in the courts. A law providing a remedy for the creditors of a bankrupt, and for the relief and restitution of the bankru

Shares in the capital of a bank ; shares in the property of a bank.

Greiner, 2 Serg. & R. (Pat) 115.

An old law term, signifying a space or tract of country around a city, town, or monastery, distinguished and protected by peculiar privileges. Spelman.

A French and Canadian law term, having the same meaning as banleuca, (q. v.)

See Baneret.

We ban or expel. The form of expulsion of a member from the University of Oxford, by affixing the sentence in some public places, as a promulgation of it Cowell.

L. Lat. In old English law. The bans of matrimony.

In old law, one under a ban, (q. v.;) an outlaw or banished man. Britt cc. 12, 13; Calvin.

To summon tenants to serve at the lord's courts, to bring corn to be ground at his mill.

See Bans of Matrimony.

A ban, (q. vt)

In old English law. A proclamation. Bannus regis; the king's proclamation, made by the voice of a herald, forbidding all present at the trial by combat to interfere either by motio

Fr. A bench; the table or counter of a trader, merchant or banker. Banque route; a broken bench or ceunter; bankrupt.

A public announcement of an intended marriage, required by the English law to he made in a church or chapel, duting service, on three consecutive Sundays before the marriage is cel

In East Indian law. A Hindoo merchant or shop-keeper. The word is used in Bengal to denote the native who manages the money concerns of a European, and sometimes serves him as an i

1. A partition or railing running across a court-room, intended to separate the general public from the space occupied by the judges, counsel, jury, and others concerned in the tri

Span. A concubine, whom a man keeps alone in hls house, unconnected with any other woman. Las Par-tidas, pt. 4, tit 14. Baratriam committit qui propter pecuniam justitiam baractat.

In old Lombardlc law. An uncle, (patruus.)

In old European law. Money paid to support a barbican or watch-tower.

The same as a "naked" possibility See infra.

L. Fr. A wrangling suit Britt c. 92; Co. Litt. 368b.

A person to whose fiduciary office no duties were originally attached or who, although such duties were originally attached to his office, would, on the requisition of his cestuis

In English law. A fee taken by the sheriff, time out of mind, for every prisoner who is acquitted. Bac. Abr. "Extortion." Abolished by St 14 Geo. III. c. 26; 55 Geo. III. c. 50; 8

A mutual undertaking, contract or agreement. A contract or agreement between two parties, the one to sell goods or lands, and the other to buy them. Hunt v. Adams, 5 Mass. 360, 4 A

In conveyancing. The transferring of the property of a thing from one to another, upon valuable consideration, by way of sale. Shep. Touch, (by Preston,) 221. A contract or bargain

The party to a bargain to whom the subject-matter of the bargain or thing bargained for is to go ; the grantee in a deed of bargain and sale.

The party to a bargain who is to perform the contract by delivery of the subject-matter.

Is sometimes figuratively used to denote the mere words or letter of an instrument or outer covering of the idcas sought to be expressed, as distinguished from its inner substance

In linear measure. The third of an inch.

Courts held in certain mining districts belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, for regulation of the mines, and for deciding questions of title and other matters relating thereto. 3

An inn of chancery. See Inns or Chancery.

An old law term signifying, originally, a "man," whether slave or free. In. later usage, a "freeman." a "strong man, a "good soldier," a "baron;" also a "vassal," or "feudal tenant

A lord or nobleman; the most general title of nobllity in England. 1 BL Comm. 398, 399. A particular degree or title of nobility, next to a viscount. A judge of the court of excheq

In English law. The collective body of the barons or of the nobility-at large, Speiman.

Husband and wife. A wife being under the protection and influence of her baron, lord, or husband, is styled a "feme-covert," (fœmina viro cooperta,) and her state of marriage is ca

An English name or title of dignity, (but not a title of nobllity,) established A. D. 1611 by James I. It is created by letters patent, and descends to the male heir. Spelman.

Members of" parliament from these ports, viz.: Sandwich, Romney, Hastings, Hythe, and Dover. Win-chelsea and Rye have been added.

The six judges of the court of exchequer in England, of whom one is styled the "chief baron;" answering to the justices-and chief justice of other courts.

The dignity of a baron; a species of tenure; the territory or lands held by a baron. Spelman. —Barony of land. In England, a quantity of land amounting to 15 acres. In Ireland, a s

In England, a quantity of land amounting to 15 acres. In Ireland, a subdivision of a county.

In old practice. A pica in bar. The bar of the court. A barrister.

One who is guilty of the crime of barratry.

Fraudulent; having the character of barratry.

In maritime law. An act committed by the master or mariners of a vessel, for some unlawful or fraudulent purpose, contrary to their duty to the owners, whereby the latter sustain I

Obstructed by a bar; subject to hindrance or obstruction by a bar or barrier which, if interposed, will prevent legal redress or recovery; as, when it is said that a claim or cause

A measure of capacity, equal to thirty-six gallons. In agricultural and mercantile parlance, as also in the inspection laws, the term "barrel" means, prima facie, not merely a cert

In the civll law. A debt which bears no interest.

Sterility; the incapacity to bear chlldren.

In criminal law. A common mover, exciter or maintainer of suits and quarrels either in courts or elsewhere in the country; a disturber of the peace who spreads false rumors and cal

In criminal law. The act or offense of a barretor, (q. v.;) usually called "common barretry." The offense of frequently exciting and stirring up suits and quarrels, either at law o

In mining law and the usage of miners, is a wall of coal left between two mines.

In English law. An advocate; one who has been called to the bar. A counsellor learned in the law who pleads at the bar of the courts, and who is engaged in conducting the trial or

A contract by which parties exchange goods or commodities for other goods. It differs from sale, in this: that in the latter transaction goods or property are always exchanged for

In old English law. The demesne land of a manor; a farm distinct from the mansion.

In old English law. Low, or inferior knights, by tenure of a base military fee, as distinguished from barons and bannerets, who were the chief or superior knights. Cowell.

adj. Low; inferior; servile; of subordinate degree; impure, adulterated or alloyed. —Base animal. See Animal. —Base bullion. Base silver bullion is silver in bars mixed to a greate

See Animal.

Base silver bullion is silver in bars mixed to a greater or less extent with alloys or base materials. Hope Min. Co., v. Kennon, 3 Mont. 44.

Debased, adulterated, or alloyed coin. Gabe v. State, 6 Ark 540.

In English law. Any inferior court that is not of record, as a court baron, etc. Kitch. 95, 96; Cowell.

The estate which "base tenants" (g. v) have in their land. Cowell.

In English law. An estate or fee which has a qualification subjoined thereto, and which must be determined whenever the qualification annexed to it is at an end. 2 Bl. Comm. 109. W

In Scotch law. A disposition of lands by a vassal, to be held of himself.

In Scotch law, a subordinate right; the right of a subvassal in the lands held by him. Bell.

In feudal law. Such services as were unworthy to be performed by the nobler men. and were performed by the peasants and those of servile rank. 2 Bl. Comm. 61.

Tenants who performed to their lords services in villenage ; tenants who held at the will of the lord, as distinguished from frank tenants, or freeholders. Cowell

A tenure by villenage, or other customary service, as distinguished from tenure by military service; or from tenure by free service. Cowell.

A Greek word, meaning "king " A title assumed by the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is used by Justinian in some of the Novels; and is said to have been applied to the En

The name given to a compilation of Roman and Greek law, prepared about A. D. 880 by the Emperor Basilius, and published by his successor, Leo the Philosopher. It was written in Gre

In old English law. A kind of money or coin abolished by Henry II.

In admiralty law and marine insurance. A part of the sea inclosed in rocks. U. S. v. Morel, 13 Am. Jur. 286, 26 Fed. Cas. 1,310.

In feudal law. Lands held by the service of making the king's baskets.

In feudal law. Low Justice; the right exercised by feudal lords of personally trying persons charged with trespasses or minor offenses.

An illegitimate child; a chlld born of an unlawful intercourse, and while its parents are not united in marriage. Timmins v. Lacy, 30 Tex. 135; Miller v. Anderson, 48 Ohio St. 473,

In old English law. A female .bastard. Fleta, lib. 5, c. 5, § 40.

In old English law. Bastard elder. If a child was barn of an. illicit connection, and afterwanis the parente intermarried and had another son. the elder was called "bastard eigne,"

To declare one a bastard, as a court does. To give evidence to prove one a bastard. A mother (married) cannot bastardize her child. Bastardus nullius est filins, ant filins populi.

The offense of begetting a bastard child. The condition of a bastard. Dinkey v. Com., 17 Pa. 129, 55 Am. Dec. 542.

The method provided by statute of proceeding against the putative father to secure a proper maintenance for the bastard.

In old English law, a baton, club or staff. A term applied to officers of the wardens of the prison called the "Fleet," because of the staff carried by them. Coweli; Spelman; Terme

In French law. The suburbs of a town.

Land that is in controversy or about the possession of which there is a dispute, as the lands which were situated between England and Scotland before the Union. Skene.

In old English law. Battel; the trial by combat or duellum.

In French marine law. A vessel or ship.

The chief of the French bar in its various centres, who presides in the council of discipline, Arg. Fr: Merc. Law, 546.

Trial by combat; wager of battel.

Any unlawful beating or other wrongful physical violence or constraint, inflicted on a human being without his consent 2 Bish. Crim. Law, § 71; Good-rum v. State, 60 Ga. 511; Razor

In Louisiana. A marine term used to denote a bottom of sand, stone or rock mixed together and rising towards the surface of the water; an elevation of the bed of a river under the

See Teller. —. Joint-stock hanks. In English law. Joint-stock companies for the purpose of banking. They are regulated, according to tihe date of their incorporation, by charter, o

One who procures opportunities for persons of opposite sexes to cohabit in an illicit manner; who may be, while exercising the trade of a bawd, perfectly innocent of committing in

A house of prostitution ; a brothel. A house or dwelling maintained for the convenience and resort of persons desiring unlawful sexual connection. Davis v. State, 2 Tex. App. 427;

A pond-head made of a great height to keep in water for the supply of a mill, etc., so that the wheel of the mill may be turned by the water rushing thence, through a passage or fl

In old English law. Bailiff. This term is used in the laws of the colony of New Plymouth, Mass., A. D. 1670, 1671. Bur-rill.

A species of creek or stream common in Louisiana and Texas. An outlet from a swamp, pond or lagoon, to a river or the sea. See Surgett v. Lapice, 8 How. 48, 70, 12 In Ed. 982.

An abbreviation for "before Christ," "bail court," "bankruptcy eases," and "British Columbia."