Arser In Le Main
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Burning in the hand. The punishment inflicted on those who received the benefit of clergy. Termes de la Ley. ARSON (Lat. ardere, to burn).
At common law
The malicious burning of the house of another.
Coke, 3d Inst. 66; Bish. Crim. Law, § 415; 4 Bl. Comm. 220; 2 Pick. (Mass.) 320; 10 Cush. (Mass.) 479; 7 Grat. (Va.) 619; 9 Ala. 175; 7 Blackf. (Ind.) 168; 1 Leach, C. C. (4th Ed.) 218.
By statute in most, if not all, the states, the house need not be that of another. The house, or some part of it, however small, must be consumed by fire.
9 Car. P. 45; 16 Mass. 105; 110 Mass. 403; 5 Ired. (N. C.) 350; 25 Ired. (N. C.) 570; 62 N. Y. 117.
At common law, the building must have been a dwelling house, but this included all buildings within the curtilage. By statute the offense has been extended to other buildings.