Definition of Common

n. An incorporeal hereditament which consists in a profit which one man has in connection with one or more others in the land of another. Trustees v. Robinson, 12 Serg. & R. (Pat) 31; Van Rensselaer v. Radeliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 647, 25 Am. Dec. 582; Watts v. Coffin, 11 Johns. (N. Y.) 498. Common, in English law, is an Incorporeal right which lies in grant, originally commencing on some agreement 'between lords and tenants, which by time has been formed into prescription, and continues good, although there be no deed or instrument to prove the original contract. 4 Coke, 37; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 258, § 268. Common, or a right of common, ls a right or privilege which several persons have to the produce of the lands or waters of another. Thus common of pasture ls a right of feeding the beasts of one person on the lands of another; common of estovers is the right a tenant has of taking necessary wood and timber from the woods of the lord for fuel, fencing, etc. Van Rensselaer v. Radeliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 647. The word "common" also denotes an uninclosed piece of land set apart for public or municipal purposes, in many cities and villages of the'United States. White v. Smith, 37 Mich. 291; Newport v. Taylor, 16 B. Mon. 807; Cincinnati v. White, 6 Pet 435, 8 In Ed. 452; Cummings v. St. Louis, 90 Mo. 259, 2 S. W. 130; Newell v. Hancock, 67 N. H. 244,-35 Atl. 253; Bath v. Boyd, 23 N. C. 194; Sinte v. McReynolds, 61 Mo. 210.
—Common appendant. A right annexed to the possession of arable land, by which the owner is entitled to feed his beasts on the lands of another, usually of the owner of the manor of which the lands entitled to common are a part. 2 Bl. Comm. 33; Smith v. Floyd, 18 Barb. (N. Y.) 527; Van Rensselaer v. Radeliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 648.
—Common appnrtenant. A right of feeding one's beasts on the land of another, (in common with the owner or with others,) which is founded on a grant, or a prescription which supposes a grant. 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 264, § 277. This kind of common, arises from no connection of tenure, and is against common right; it may commence by grant within time of memory, or, in other words, may be created at the present day; it may be claimed as annexed to any kind of land, and may be claimed for beasts not commonable, as well as those that are. 2 Bl. Comm. 33; Van Rensselaer v. Radeliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 649; Smith v. Floyd, 18 Barb. (N. Y.) 527.
—Common because of vicinage is where the inhabitants of two townships which lie contiguous to each other have usually intercommoned with one another, the beasts of the one straying mutually into the other's fields, without any molestation from either. This is, indeed, only a permissive right, intended to excuse what, in strictness, is a trespass in bath, and to prevent a multiplicity of suite, and therefore either township may inclose and bar out the other, though they have intercommoned lime out of mind. 2 Bl. Comm. 33; Co. Litt. 122a.
—Common in gross, or at large. A species of common which is neither appendant nor appurtenant to land, but is annexed to a man's person, being granted to him and his heirs by deed; or it may be claimed by prescriptive right, as by a parson of a church or the like corporation sole. 2 Bl. Comm. 34. It is a separate inheritance, entirely distinct from any other landed property, vested in the person to whom the common right belongs. 2 Steph. Comm. 6; Mitchell v. D'Olier, 68 N. J. Law, 375, 53 Atl. 467, 59 L. R. A. 949.
—Common of digging. Common of digging, or common in the soil, is the right to take for one's own use part of the soil or minerals in another's land; the most usual subjects of the right are sand, gravel, stones, and clay. It is of a very similar nafure to common of estovers and of turbary. Elton, Com. 109.
—Common of estovers. A liberty of taking necessary wood for the use or furniture of a house or farm from off another's estate, in common with the owner or with others. 2 Bl. Comm. 35. It may be claimed, like common of pasture, either by grant or prescription. 2 Steph. Comm. 10; Van Rensselaer v. Radcliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 648.
—Common of fishery. The same as Common of piscary. See infra.
—Common of fowling. In some parts of the country a right of taking wild animals (such as conies or wildfowl) from the land of another has been found to exist; in the case of wildfowl, it is called a "common of fowling." Elton, Co.m. 118.
—Common of pasture. The right or liberty of pasfuring one's cattle upon another man's land. It may be either appendant, appurtenant, in gross, or because of vicinage. Van Rensselaer v. Radeliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 647.
—Common of piscary. The right or liberty of fishing in another man's water, in common with the owner or with other persons. 2 Bl. Comm. 34. A liberty or right of fishing in the water covering the soil of another person, or in a river running through another's land. 3 Kent, Comm. 409. Hardin v. Jordan, 140 U. 'S. 371, 11 Sup. Ct 808, 35 In Ed. 428; Albright v. Park Comin, 68 N. J. Law, 523, 53 Atl. 612; Van Rensselaer v. Radeliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 649. It is quite different from a common fishery, with which, however, it is frequently confounded.
—Common of shack. A species of common by vicinage prevailing in the counties of Norfolk, Lincoln, and Yorkshire, in England; being the right of persons occupying lands lying together in the same common field to turn out their cattle after harvest to feed promiscuously in that field. 2 Steph. Comm. 6, 7; 5 Coke, 65.
—Common of turbary. Common of turbary, in its modem sense, is the right of taking peat or furf from the waste land of another, for fuel in the commoner's house. Williams, Common, 187; Van Rensselaer v. Rad-cliff, 10 Wend. (N. Y.) 647.
—Common sans nombre. Common without number, that is, without limit as to the number of cattle which may be turned on; otherwise called "common without stint" Bract, fols. 53b, 222b; 2 Steph. Comm. 6, 7; 2 Bl. Comm. 34.
—Common, tenants in. See Tenants in Common.