Caput

Lat. A head; the' head of a person; the whole person; the life of a person. See ^stimatio capitis. In the civil law. A person or individual. In capite libero; in, or over a free person.

Inst. 1. 13. 1.

Omnis noxalis actio caput sequitur; every noxal action follows the person.

Id. 4. 8. 6.

A certain personal qualification, otherwise called status, which formed the indispensable requisite to the capacity for civil rights among the Romans; and o^ which there were three kinds; freedom, U;itizenship and family.

1 Mackeld. Civ. Law, 129, § 119. Inst. 1. 16. pr. et seq. Dig. 4. 5. 11.

See Capitis diminution In feudal law. A head or chief; the king as head of the state. See Caput, principium et finis. To hold lands in capite, was to hold directly from the king, as the sovereign lord; [omnium terrarum capite.) Spelman. Blount, voc.

Capite.

Caput comitatiU; the head or chief of the county; one of the ancient titles of the earl.

Gilb, C. Pleas, 2.

Caput feudi vel terra; the chief lord of a fee. Spelman, Feuds, c.

4.

In old English law

A head or upper end of a place. Caput villce; the head of the town. Cowell, Blount. Caput terrce; the head or upper end of a piece of land. A chief or principal place, house or messuage, {capitale messuagium.) Caput comitatus; the chief seat of an earl. Bract, fol.

76 b.

Caput baronies; the castle, manor house, or chief seat of a baron. Id. ibid. Id. fol.

93. Blount.

Spelman, voc. Baronia, Baro. A head or beginning. Caput anni; the beginning of the year; ^the new year's day.

Cowell.

Caput, pkincipiuu et finis. Lat. The head, beginning and end. A term applied in English law to the kin^, as head of parliament.

4 Inst. 3. 1 Bl. Com. 188.