Boc Land

Sax. ' [quasi book-land; L. Lat. terra libraria or hoereditaria,'] In Saxon law. Land held and conveyed by writing, boc, deed or charter; deed land, or charter land, so called to distinguish it from folc land, which was held without writing.

Spelman. Cowell. 1 Beeves' Hist. Eng, Law, 6. 4 Kent's Com. 441, 442.

Land severed from the folc land, and converted into an estate of perpetual inheritance. According to Sir W. Blackstone, it was land held by deed under certain rents and services, and in effect differed nothing from the free socage lands.

2 Bl. Com, 90.

And Spelman, in explaining the epithet Jiigreditaria, observes that it could neither be given away nor sold, but was to be kf t strictly to the heirs, {nee dari licuit nee vendi, sed haeredibus relinquenda erat) Later researches, however, have established the fact that boc land was in its nature allodial, and that the owner of it, unless fettered by some restriction imposed by those under whom he claimed, had the absolute power of alienation and disposition by gift and sale, and by will. Somner, Gavelk.

88, 89. Allen's Royal Prerog, 139, ei passim. 1 Spencers Chancery, 20, 21.

See I'olcland,