Proprietary

Belonging or pertaining to a proprietor. See 117 U. S. 487.

In its strict sense, this word signifies one who is master of his actions, and who has the free disposition of his property. During the colonial government of Pennsylvania, William Penn was called the proprietary. Belonging to ownership; as proprietary rights. Ferguson v. Arthur, 117 U. S. 487, 6 Sup. Ct 861, 29 L. Ed. 979.

adj. Relating or pertaining to ownership, belonging or pertaining to a single individual owner.

— Proprietary articles. Goods manufactured under some exclusive individual right to make and sell them. The term is chiefly used in the internal revenue laws of the United States. See Ferguson v. Arthur, 117 U. S. 482, 6 Sup. Ct. 861, 29 L. Ed. 079; In re Gourd (C. Ct) 49 Fed. 729.

— Proprietary chapel. See Chapel.

— Proprietary governments. This expression is used by Blaekstone to denote governments granted out by the crown to individuals, in the nature of feudatory principalities, with inferior regalities and subordinate powers of legislation such as formerly belonged to the owners of counlies palatine. 1 Bl. Comm. 108.

— Proprietary rights. Those rights which an owner of property has by virtue of his ownership. When proprietary rights are opposed to acquired rights, such as easements, franchises, etc., they are more often called "natural rights." Sweet.

n. A proprietor or owner; one who has the exclusive title to a thing; one who possesses or holds the title to a thing in hls own right. The grantees of Pennsylvania and Maryland and their heirs were called the proprietaries of those provinces. Webster.

n. Owner. Originally, a mere equivalent to proprietor; but it has been much used to denote proprietors of estates under large royal grants, or of great colonial estates. Grantees on whom great tracts of land in new countries have been conferred with partial powers of government, as a means of promoting emigration to and colonization of the lands, have been called proprietaries. In ecclesiastical law, it was chiefly used for him who had the fruits of a benefice to himself, his heirs and successors, as abbots and priors had to them and their successors, l^omlins.

During the colonial government of Pennsylvania, William Penn was called the pro-! prictary. The domain which William Penn and his family had in the state, was, during the revolutionary war, divested by the act of the 28th of June, 1779, from that family and vested in the commonwealth for the sum which the latter paid to them of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling.