Black's Law Dictionary

Ancient English records of royal charters, granted between the years 1199 and 1516.

(For returning the charters.) An ancient writ which lay against one who had charters of feoffment intrusted to his keeping and refused to de-llver them. Reg. Orig. 159.

The charters (grants) of liberties. These are Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta.

In old European law. A keeper of records or public Instruments ; a chartulary; a registrar. Spelman.

In old English law. A plow. Bestes des charues; beasts of the plow.

The liberty or franchise of hunting, one's self, and keeping protected against all other persons, beasts of the chase within a specified district, without regard to the ownership o

This term, as used in statutes, means actual personal virtue, and not reputation or good name. It may include the character of one who was formerly unchaste but is reformed. Kenyon

Purity; continence. That virtue which prevents the unlawful intercourse of the sexes. Also the state of purity or abstinence from uniawful sexual connection. People v. Brown, 71 Hu

An article of personal property; any species of property not amounting to a freehold or fee in land. People v. Holbrook, 13 Johns. (N. Y.) 94; Homblower v. Proud, 2 Barn. & Aid. 33

An interest in corporeal hereditaments less than a freehold. 2 Kent, Comm. 342.

An instrument of sale of personalty conveying the title of the property to the mortgagee with terms of defeasance; and, lf the terms of redemption are not complied with, then, at c

A homicide committed in the heat of an affray and while under the influence of passion ; it is thus distinguished from chance-medley, which is the killing of a man in a casual affr

A kind of tenure mentioned in a patent of 35 Edw. III. Cowell; Blount

Money paid to the crown by the servants or purchasers of chauntry-lands. See Chantrt.

Swindling; defrauding, "pecoitful practices in defrauding or endeavoring to defraud another of his known right, by some willful device, contrary to the plain rnies of common honest

Were officers appointed to look after the king's escheats, a duty which gave them great opportunities of fraud and oppression, and in consequence many complaints were made of their

A book containing blank checks on a particular bank or banker, with an inner margin, calied a "stub," on which to note the number of each check, its amount and date, and the payee'

n. A draft or order upon a bank or banking-house, purporting to be drawn upon a deposit of funds, for the payment at all events of a certain sum of money to a certain person therei

The old Scotch form of exchequer.

In Anglo-Norman law. Were or weregild; the price of the head or person, (capitis pretium.)

In old French law. The privilege or prerogative of the eldest. A provincial term derived from 6hemier, (q. v.) Guyot, Inst.

In old French law. The eldest born. A term used in Poitou and other places. Guyot, Inst.

Fr. The road wherein every man goes ; the king's highway.

In old Scotch law. A chier dwelling or mansion house.

A sum of money paid by vll-lelns to their lords in acknowledgment of their bandage. Chevage seems also to have been used for a sum of money yearly given to a man of power for his c

In old records. A loan or advance of money upon credit. Cowell.

An agreement or composition; an end or order set down between a creditor or debtor; an indirect gain in point of usury, etc.; also an unlawful bargain or contract Wharton.

In old records. Pieces of ground or heads at the end of niowed lands Cowell.

A homestead or homesfall which ig accessory to a house.

Swindling; shrewd cunning. The use of tricks and artifice.

Principal; leading; head; eminent in power or importance; the most important or valuable of several. Declaration in chief is a declaration for the principal cause of action. 1 Tidd

The presiding judge of the English court of exchequer; answering to the chief justice of other courts. 3 Bl. Comm. 44; 3 Steph. Comm. 401.

The principal clerical officer of a bureau or department, who is generally charged, subject to the direction of his superior officer, with the superintendence of the administration

The judge of the London bankruptcy court is so calied. In general, the term is equivalent to "presiding justice" or "presiding magistrate." Bean v. Loryea, 81 CaL 151, 22 Pac. 513,

The presiding, eldest, or principal judge of a court of justice.

The presiding judge in the king's bench division of the high court of justice, and, in the absence of the lord chancellor, presidentyof the high court, and also an ex officio judge

In England. The presiding judge in the court of common pleas, and afterwanis in the common pleas division of the high court of justice, and one of the ex officio judges of the high

In old English law. A high judicial officer and special magistrate, who presided over the aula regis of the Norman kings, and who was also the principal minister of state, the seco

The immediate lord of the fee. to whom the tenants were directly and personally responsible.

The head of the executive department of government of a nation, state, or municipal corporation. Mclntire v. Ward, 3 Yeates (Pat) 424.

The borsholder, or chief of the borough. Spelman.

In English law. Were the annual payments of freeholders of manors ; and were also called "quit-rents," because by paying them the tenant was freed from all other rents or services.

In feudal law. A small rent paid to the lord paramount

In English feudal law. All the land in the kingdom was supposed to be holden mediately or immediately of the king, who was styled the "Lord Paramount," or "Lord Above All;" and tho

This word has two meanings in law: (1) In the law of the domestic relations, and as to descent and distribution, it is used strictly as the correlative of "parent," and means a son

Offspring; progeny. Legitimate offspring; children born in wedlock. Bell v. Phyn, 7 Ves. 458. The general rule is that "children," in a bequest or devise, means legitimate children

A "child's part," which a widow, by statute in some states, is entitled to take hi lieu of dower or the provisi os made for her by will, is a full share to which a child of the dec

In Saxon law. The right which a lord had of taking a fine of his bondwoman gotten with chlid without his license. Termes de la Ley; Cowell.

In English law. The stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds Is a nominal office in the gift of the crown, usually accepted by members of the house of commons desirous of vacating thei

In old English law. A road, way, highway. It is either the king's highway (chiminus regis) or a private way. The first is that over which the subjects of the realm, and all others

A toll for passing on a way through a forest; called in the civil law "pedagium." Cowell.

The way by which the king and all his subjects and ali under his protection have a right to pass, though the property of the soil of each side where the way lieth may belong to a p

A tax upon chimneys or hearths ; an ancient tax or duty upon houses in England, now repealed.

In old English law. A tax upon trade; a ,toll imposed upon traffic or upon goods brought to a place to be sold.

In Saxon law. An ecclesiastical assembly or court. Spelman. A synod or meeting in a church or vestry. 4 Inst 321.

In old Euglish law. A deed or indenture; also the last part of a fine of land. An instrument of gift or conveyance attested by the subscription and crosses of the witnesses, which

In Roman law. Writings emanating from a single party, the debtor.

In English law. The title of the officer of the common pleas who engrossed fines in that court so as to be acknowledged into a perpetual record. Cowell.

In Roman law. A handwriting; that which was written with a person's own hand. An obligation which a person wrote or subscribed with his own hand; an acknowledgment of debt, as of m

An evidence of debt found in the debtor's possession is presumed to be paid. Halk. Max. 20; Bell, Diet

An evidenco of debt not existing is presumed to have been discharged. Tray. Lat Max. 73.

The ancient denomination of a surgeon.

In feudal law. Knight-service. Tenure in chivalry was the same as tenure by knight-service, 2 Bl. Comin. 61, 62.

A word mentioned in 9 Hen. VI. c. 65, by the sense of which it was in those days a kind of trade, and by the judges declared to be lawful. But Brooke, in his abridgment, says it wa

The mouth of a harbor. Pub. St. Mass. 1882, p. 1288.

In ancient times a person admitted to sit and worship in the choir; a chorister.

insanity arising from chorea, the latter being a nervous disease, more commonly attacking children than adults, characterized by irregular and involuntary twitch-ings of the muscle

In old European law. A rural bishop or bishop's vicar. Spelman; Cowell.

Fr. A thing; an article of property. A chose is a chattel personal, (Wll-liams, Pers. Prop. 4,) and is either in possession or in action. See the following titles. —Chose local. A

A right to personal things of which the owner has not the possession, but merely a right of action for their possession. 2 Bl. Comm. 389, 397; 1 Chit Pr. 99. A right to receive or

A thing in possession, as distinguished from a thing in action. Sterling v. Sims, 72 Ga. 53; Vaw-ter v. Griffin, 40 Ind. 601. See Chose in Action. Taxes and customs, if paid, are a

A local thing; a thing annexed to a place, as a mill. Kitchin, fol. 18 ; Cowell ; Blount.

Under the municipal organization of the sinte of New Jersey, each county has a board of officers, called by this name, composed of representatives from the cities and townships wit

A thing which is movable, and may be taken away or carried from place to place. Cowell; Blount.

In Hindu law. A fourth, a fourth part of the sum in litigation. The "Mahratta chout" is a fourth of the revenues exacted as tribute by the Mahrattas.

Under the Salic law. This was a ceremony performed by a person who was too poor to pay his debt or fine, whereby he applled to a rich relative to pay it for him. It consisted (afte

Pertaining to Jesus Christ or the religion founded by him; professing Christianity. The adjective is also used in senses more remote from its original meaning. Thus a "court Christ

The court Christian. An ecclesiastical court, as opposed to a civll or lay tribunal. Cowell.

The religion founded and established by Jesus Christ Hale v. Everett, 53 N. H. 9, 64,16 Am. Rep. 82; People v. Ruggles, 8 Johns. (N. Y.) 207, 5 Ain. Dee, 335. Concerning the maxim

The baptismal name distinct from the surname. Stratton v. Foster, 11 Me. 407. It has been said from the bench that a Christian name may consist of a single letter. Wbarton.

A festival of the Christian church, observed on the 25th of December, in memory of the birth of Jesus Christ.

In its most general sense, tue religious society founded and established by Jesus Christ, to receive, preserve, and propagate his doctrines and ordinances. A body or community ot C

Statutes passed in England in and since the year 1818, with the object of extending the accommodation afforded by the national church, so as to make it more commensurate with the w

The statute 3 & 4 Viet. c. 86, containing regulations for trying clerks in holy orders charged with offenses against ecclesiastical law, and for enforcing sentences pronounced in s

In old English law. A certain portion or measure of wheat, anciently paid to the church on St. Martin's day; and which, according to Fleta, was paid as well in the time of the Brit

The church of England is a distinct branch of Christ's church, and ls also an iristitution of the state, (see the first clause of Magna Charta,) of which the sovereign is the supre

In English law. A sum assessed for the repair of parochial churches by the representatives of the parishioners in vestry assembled.

A church warden; an overseer of a church. Now obsolete. Cowell.

In old English law. Customary obligations paid to the parish priest; from which duties the religious sometimes purchased an exemption for themselves and their tenants.

A species of ecclesiastical officers who are intrusted with the care and guardianship of the church building and property. These, with the rector and vestry, represent the parish i

See Cemetery.

In Saxon law. A freeman of inferior rank, chiefly employed in husbandry. 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 5. A tenant at will of free condition, who held land from a thane, on condition of rents

Lat In the civll law. Food; victuals. Dig. 34, 1.

In medical jurisprudence. A scar; the mark left in the flesh or skin after the healing of a wound, and having the appearance of a seam or of a ridge of flesh.

Five (now seven) ports or havens on the south-east coast of England, towards France, formerly esteemed the most important in the kingdom. They are Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Hastings

An old English law term for the stocks, an instrument in which the wrists or Ankles of petty offenders were confined.

A tribute anciently paid to the bishop or archbishop for visiting churches. Du Fresne.

In Hindu law. Head of affairs ; the state or government; a grand division of a province; a headman. A name used by Europeans in Bengal to denote the Hindu writer and acceuntant emp

A division of the country, appointed for a particular Judge to visit for the trial of causes or for the administration of Justice. Bouvier. Circuits, as the term Is used In England

The name of a system of courts of the United States, invested with general original jurisdiction of such matters and causes as are of Federal cognizance, except the matters special