Black's Law Dictionary

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."

A term which corresponds to the beneficium inventarii of Roman law, and substantially to the English law doctrine that the executor properly accounting is only liable to the extent

An abbreviation for "Baron of the Court of Exchequer."

This term, in its ordinary signification, when applied to a place on tideratera, means the space between ordinary high and low water mark or the space over which the tide usually e

A light-house or sca-mark, formerly used to alarm the country, in case of the approach of an enemy, but how used for the guidance of ships at sea, by night, as well as by day.

Money paid for the maintenance of a bcacon or signal-light

In English ecclesiastical law. An inferior parish officer, who is chosen by the vestry, and whose business is to attend the vestry, to give notice of its meetings, to execute its o

Instruments for weighing goods and merchandise.

To support, sustain or carry; to give rise toj or to produce, something else as an incident or auxillary. —Bear arms. To carry arms as weapons and with reference to their military

To carry arms as weapons and with reference to their military use, not to wear them about the person as part of the dress. Aymette v. State, 2 Humph. (Tenn.) 158. As applied to fir

One who carries or holds a thing. When a check, note, draft, etc., is payable to "bearer," it imports that the contents thereof shall be payable to any person who may present the i

In old English law. Those who bore down upon or oppressed others; Cowell.

Disclosing a date on its face; having a certain date. These words are often used in conveyancing, and in pleading, to introduce tha date which has been put upon an instrument.

To generate interest, so that the instrument or loan spoken of shall produce or yield interest at the rate specified by the parties or granted by law. Slaughter v. Slaughter, 21 In

An animal; a domestic animal; a quadruped, such as may be used for food or in labor or for sport —Beasts of the chase. In English law. The buck, doe, fox, martin, and roe. Co. Litt

In Suffolk, England, imports land and common for one beast. Bennington v. Goodtitle, 2 Strange, 1084; Rose. Real Act. 485.

In English law. The buck, doe, fox, martin, and roe. Co. Litt. 233a.

In English law. The hart, hind, hare, boar, and wolf. Co. Litt. 233a.

An old term for animals employed in the operations of husbandry, including horses. Somers v. Bmer-son, 58 N. H. 49.

In English law. Hares, coneys, and roes. Co.. Litt. 233; 2 Bl. Comm. 39.

n. In some of the southern states (as Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina) the principal legal subdivision of a county, corresponding to towns or townships in other states; or a v

To plead fairly. In English law. An obsolete writ upon the statute of Marlbridge, (52 Hen. III. c. 11,) winch enacts that neither in the circuits of the justices, nor in counties,

1. The hollow or channel of a water-course ; the depression between the banka worn by the regular and usual flow of the water. "The bed is that soil so usually covered by water as

In English law. A crier or messenger of court, who summons men to appear and answer therein. Cowell. An officer of the forest, similar to a sheriff's special baillff. Cowell. A col

The Jurisdiction of a bedel, as a bailiwick is the jurisdiction of a baillff. Ch Litt 234b; Cowell.

A service which certain tenants were anciently bound to perform, as to reap their landlord's corn at harvest. Said by Whishaw to be still in existence in some parts of England. Blo

In old French law. The seat or throne upon which the king sat when personally present in parliament; hence it signified the parliament itself.

A liquor compounded of malt and hops. In its ordinary sense, denotes a beverage which is intoxicating, and is within the fair meaning of the words "strong or spirituous liquors," u

In English law. A place where beer is sold to be consumed on the premises; as distinguished from a "beer-shop," which is a place where beer is sold to be consumed off the premises.

Prior to; preceding. In the presence of; under the official purview of; as in a magistrate's Jurat, "before me personally appeared," etc. In the absence of any statutory provision

To solicit alms or charitable aid. The act of a cripple in passing along the sidewalk and silently holding out his hand and receiving money from passers-by is "begging for alms," w

A land measure used in the East Indies. In Bengal it is equal to about a third part of an acre.

One who lives by begging charity or who has no other means of support than solicited alms.

In Indla. A lady, princess, woman of high rank.

A witness testifies on "behalf" of the party who calls him, notwithstanding his evidence proves to be adverse to that party's case. Richerson v. Stern-burg, 65 111. 274. See, furth

Maimer of behaving, whether good or bsd; conduct; manners; carriage of one's self, with respect to propriety and morals; deportment. Webster. State v. Roll, 1 Ohio Dec. 284. Surety

In Spanish law. Lands situated in places where the inhabitants had the right to select their own lords.

Use; benefit; profit; service; advantage. It occurs in conveyances, e. ff., "in his and-their use and behoof." Stiles v. Japhet, 84 Tex. 91, 19 S. W. 450.

A conviction of the truth of a proposition, existing subjectively in the mind, and induced by argument, persuasion or proof addressed to the judgment. Kelier v. State, 102 Ga. 506,

In international law. A term used to designate either of two nations which are actually in a state of war with each other, as well as their allies actively co-operating; as disting