Baron

Fr. and Eng. [L. Lat. baro, q. v.] A lord or nobleman; the most general title of nobility in England.

1 Bl. Com. 398, 399.

A particular degree or title of nobility, next to a viscount. Id. ibid.

405.

A judge of the court of exchequer.

3 BL Com. 44. Cowell.

See Barons of the Exchequer. A husband.

1 Bl. Com. 432, 442.

See Baron and Feme. A freeman.

Co. Litt. 58 a.

See Baro. The chief citizens of London, York, and of some other places in which the citizens possess peculiar franchises, are called in early charters, barons; and the same name was given to the freemen of the Cinque Ports. Spelman. Bract, fol.

117 b. P.

Cyclopcedia

The word baron is of Norman origin, and is supposed by Spelman to have been introduced into England about the time of the Conquest. Baro, its Latin form, occurs indeed in the laws of Edward the Confessor and other ancient collections, but Spelman supposes it to have been introduced in these cases by a later hand. As to its etymology, some have traced it to the baro, varo, varro and vero of the ancient Latin writers, others to the ^agv; of the Greeks. Spelman, however, has shown satisfactory reasons for deriving it from the language of the barbarian nations who overran the Roman empire. Its radical and primitive meaning seems to have been the same with that of the Latin vir, a man, and runs through the wer, war, and var of the Anglo Saxons, the ber of the Franks, the bar of the Alamanni, (in their laws and charters bams and paro,) and the baro of the Lombards and Salians; thus denoting a common origin of the word at this period.

Spelman.

Hence the lower Greek pagog, ^agevg, and Pagayyog. This primitive meaning of man became gradually modified into that of freeman, strong or able-bodied man, (see Baro,) ' until the word came to be appropriated by the feudal law, to signify one who held lands of a superior by military and other services; a vassal, or feudal tenant; (see Baro,) one who acknowledged himself to be his lord's mxin, {homo, see Homage;) and whose bodily ability to bear arms was of course an essential qualification. It was after it had acquired this feudal sense of tenant, that it was introduced into the English law, the earliest use of the term being to denote that class of persons who held lands of a superior by military and other honorable services, and who were bound to attendance in the courts of that superior, to do homage, and to assist in the various business transacted there.

P.

Cyclopasdia

The court itself in which these tenants had to perform their services, is called to this day the court baron, more correctly, (as some suppose) the court of the barons, (curia baronum.) 3 Bl. Com. 33. The term baron, however, soon came to be almost exclusively applied to those who held lands immediately of the king, the tenants in eapite, or tenants in chief of the crown; and continued to be used in this sense for two centuries and a half after the conquest. For the origin and application of the term as a title of nobility in England, see Spelman^ Selden's Titles of Honor, Home's British Antiquities, P. Cyclopaedia.