Black's Law Dictionary

An aqueduct or passage for water.

All waters within the United States which are navigable for the purposes of commerce, or whose navigation successfully aids commerce, are included in this term. The Daniel Ball. 6

In old records. Such goods as, after a wreck, swim or float on the waves. Jacob.

The chief maglatrate of Ripon, in Yorkshire.

A duty anciently paid twice a year towards the charge of wax candles in churches. Spelman.

A passage, path, road or street In a technical sense, a right of passage over land. A right of way is the privilege which an individual, or a particular description of persons, as

A writing in which is set down the names of passengers who are carried in a public conveyance or the description of goods sent with a common carrier by land. Wharton.

A crop of grain sown by a tenant for a term certain, during his tenancy, but which will not ripen until after the expiration of his lease; to this, by custom in some places, the te

Is a right of way over or through land for the carriage of minerals from a mine or quarry. It is an easement, being a species of the class calied "rights of way," and is generally

Implements of husbandry. 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, c. 5, p. 268.

In a legislative body, the "committee on ways and means" is a committee appointed to inquire into and consider the methods and sources for raising revenue, and to propose means for

The English highway acts provide that in every parish forming part of a highway district there shall annually be elected one or more waywardens. The waywardens so elected, and the

An abbreviation for "Western District."

Sax. A wood; the woody part of a country.

In old English law. The robbing of a dead man in his grave.

All material objects, capable of satisfying human wants, desires or tastes, having a value in exchange, and upon which human labor has been expended; i. e., which haye, by such lab

An instrument used in fighting; an instrument of offensive or defensive combat. The term is chiefly used, in law, in the statutes prohibiting the carrying of "concealed" or "deadly

Natural wear and tear means deterioration or depreciation in value by ordinary and reasonable use of the subject-matter. Green v. Kelly, 20 N. J. Law, 548.

A great dam or fence made across a river or against water, formed of stakes interlaced by twigs of osier, and accommodated for the taking of fish or to convey a stream to a mill. C

Sax. A covenant or agreement Cowell.

Sax. In old English law. A customary service which tenants paid to their lords, in cutting down their corn or doing other harvest duties; as lf a covenant to reap for the lord at t

A period of seven consecutive days of time; and, in some uses, the period beginning with Sunday and ending with Saturday. See Leach v. Burr, 188 U. S. 510, 23 Sup. Ct. 393, 47 In E

In old European law. The judicial combat or duel; the trial by battel.

In English law. A duty or toll paid for weighing merchandise. It is called "tronage" for weighing wool at the king's beam or "pesage" for weighing other avoirdupois goods. 2 Chit C

A measure of heaviness or ponderosity; and in a metaphorical sense influence, effectiveness or power to influence judgment or conduct —Gross Weight. The whole weight of goods and m

The balance or preponderance of evidence; the inclination of the greater amount of credible evidence, offered in a trial, to support one side of the issue rather than the other. Th

See Auncel Weight.

A fence or an inclosure of twigs, set in a stream to catch fish. Pub. St. Mass, p. 1297; Treat v. Chipman, 35 Me. 38.

adj. In marine insurance. A In the old reports. Good, sufficient, unobjectionable in law; the opposite of "111." n. A well, as the term is used in a conveyance, is an artificial ex

A phrase used in pleading as the technical expression in laying a scienter, (q. v.)

See Mortgage.

In old records. A large extent of ground, comprising several juga; a perambulation; a circuit. Spelman; Cowell.

The estimation or price of a man, especially of one slain. In the criminni law of the Anglo-Saxons, every man's life had its value, called a "were," or "capitis æstimatio."

Sav. In old English law. A robber who might be ransomed. Fleta, llb. 1, c. 47, § 13.

This was the price of homicide or other atrocious per-senal offense, paid partly to the king for the loss of a subject, partly to the lord for the loss of a vassal, and partly to t

A purging from a crime by the oaths of several persons, according to the degree and quality of the accused. Cowell.

In old Scotch law. A sum paid by an offendor as a compensation or satisfaction for the offense; a we'regild, or wergild.

Belg. In European law. Contribution for jettison; average,

A city immediately adjoining London, and forming a part of the metropolis; formerly the seat of the superior courts of the kingdom.

A document containing a statement of religious doctrine, concocted at a conference of British and continental Protestant divines at Westminster, in the year 1648, which subsequentl

The statute 3 Edw. I., A. D. 1275. This statute, which deserves the name of a code rather than an act, is divided into fifty-one chapters. Without extending the exemption of church

Tbe statute 13 Edw. I. St. 1, A. D. 1285, otherwise called the "Statute de Donis Condition-alibus." See 2 Reeve, Eng. Law, c. 10, p. 163. Certain parts of this act are repealed by

The laws of the West Saxons, which obtained in the counties to the south and west of England, from Kent to Devonshire. Blaekstone supposes these to have bcen much the same with the

A castrated ram, at least one year old. In an indictment it may be calied a "sheep." Rex v. Birket,4 Car. & P. 216.

A royal fish, the head being the king's property, and the tail the queen's. 2 Steph. Comm. 19, 448, 540.

A vessel employed in the whale fishery.

A perpendicular bank or mound of timber or stone and earth, raised on the shore of a harbor, river, canal, etc. or extending some distance into the water, for the convenience of la

Money paid for landing wares at a wharf or for shipping or taking goods into a boat or barge from thence, Cowell. Strictly speaking "wharfage" is money due, or money actually paid,

One who owns or keeps a wharf for the purpose of receiving and shipping merchandise to or from it for hire.

An engine of torture used in medieval Europe, on which a criminal was bound while his limbs were broken one by one till he died.

Duty or toll paid for carts, etc., passing over certain ground. Cowell.

A tax on wheeled vehicles of some or all kinds and bicycles.

Technical words in pleading, formerly necessary in making full defense to certain actions.

This word, though often used as equivalent to "as soon as," is also often used where the time intended by it is, and will be until its arrival, or for some uncertain period, at lea

A word which implies a recital of a past fact. The word "whereas," when it renders the deed senseless or repugnant, may be struck out as impertinent, and shall not vitiate a deed i

This name was applied in Scotland, A. D. 1648, to those violent Covenant-era who opposed the Duke of Hamilton's invasion of England in order to restore Charles I. The appellation o

A mode of punishment, by the infliction of stripes, occasionally used in England and in a few of the American states.

A post or stake to which a criminal is tied to undergo the punishment of whipping. This penalty is now abolished, except in a few states.

A Mongolian is not a "white person," within the meaning of the term as used in the naturalization laws of the United States ; the term applies only to persons of the Caucasian race

A fictitious name given to a piece of land, in the English books, for purposes of illustration.

In Scotch law. A fictitious offerer or bidder at a roup or auction sale. Bell.

A place in London between the Temple and Blackfriars, which was formerly a sanctuary, and therefore privileged from arrest. Wharton.

A mulct on certain lands in or near to the forest of Whitehart, paid into the exchequer, imposed by Henry III. upon Thomas de la Linda, for killing a beautiful white hart which tha

In old English law. Milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and any composition of them. Cowell.

In English law. Rents paid in silver, and called "white rents," or "redditus albi," to distinguish them from rents payable in corn, labor, provisions, etc., called "black-rent" or

A kind of esquires. Cowell.

Pentecostais, (q. v.)

The feast of Pentecost, being the fiftieth day after Easter, and the first of the four cross-quarter days of the year. Wharton.

In old English law. A class of offenders who whitened stolen oxhides and horse-hides so that they conid not be known and identified.

See Blood.

To sell by wholesale is to sell by large parcels, generally in original packages, and not by retail.

A whore is a woman who practices unlawful commerce with men. particularly one who does so for hire; a harlot; a concubine; a prostitute. Sheehey v. Co.k-ley, 43 Iowa, 183, 22 Am. R

A place on the sea-shore or the bank of a river.

A country house or farm. Cowell.

Sax. A village, town or district Hence, in composition, the territory over which a given jurisdiction extends. Thus, "bailiwick" is the territorial jurisdiction of a bailiff or she

A woman whose husband is dead, and who has not married again. The "king's widow" was one whose deceased husband had bcen the king's tenant in capite; she could not marry again with

A man whose wlfe ls dead, and who has not remarried.

The state or condition of being a widow. An estate is sometimes settled upon a woman "during widowhood," which ls expressed in Latin, "durante viduitate."

In London, the apparel of a widow and the furniture of her chamber, left by her deceased husband, is so calied, and the widow is entitled to it 2 Bl. Comm. 518.

In old English law. The space of forty days after the death of a man who died seised of lands, during which his widow might remain in her husband's capital mansion-house, without r

In Scotch law. The right which a wife has after her husband's death to a third of the rents of lands in which her husband died infeft; dower. Beil.

L. Lat In old European law. A mark or sign; a mark set up on land, to denote an exclusive occupation or to prohibit entry. Spelman.

A woman who has a husband liv-and undivorced. The correlative term is "husband."

When a husband is compelled to seek the aid of a court of equity for the purpose of obtaining the possession or control of his wife's estate, that court will recognize the right of

In old English law. The overseer of a wood. Cowell.

(Or animals feræ natures.) Animals of an untamable disposition.

Land in a state of nature, as distinguished from improved or cultivated land. Clark v. Phelps, 4 Cow. (N. Y.) 203.

A will is the legal expression of a man's wishes as to the disposition of his property after his death. Code Ga. 1882, § 2394; Swinb. Wilis, § 2. An instrument in writing, executed

In Hindu law. The relation between a master or patron and his freedman. and the relation between two persons who had made a reciprocal testamentary contract. Wharton.

Proceeding from a conscious motion of the will; intending the result which actually comes to pass; designed; intentional ; malicious. A willful differs essentially from a negligent

Intentionally. In charging certain offenses, it is required that they should be stated to be willfully done. Archb. Crim. PI. 51, 58; Leach, 556.

Willful neglect is the neglect of the husband to provide for his wife the common necessaries of life, he having the ability to do so; or it is the failure to do so by reason of idl

Though rejected by some couris and writers as involving a contradiction of terms, this phrase is occasionally used to describe a higher or more aggravated form of negligence than "

In England. 1. The statute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 1, passed in 1540, by which persons seised in fee-simple of lands holden in socage tenure were enabled to devise the same at their will

The standard measure of England, originally kept at Winchester, l Bl. Comm. 274.

The name applied in England to the process of settling the accounts and liquidating the assets of a partnership or company, for the purpose of making distribution and dissolving th

In English law. General acts of parliament, regulating settlement of corporate affairs on dissolution.

An opening made in the wall of a house to admit light and ale, and to furnish a view or prospect The nse of this word in law is chiefly in connection with the doctrine of ancient l

See Window.

A royal forest founded by Henry VIII.