A Name! A Name! What's In A Name?

Two Joseph Pardue Signatures In The George Washington Papers In The Library of Congress *

Until the advent of dictionaries creating more uniform rules for spelling, those who could write often wrote a word as they heard it sounded, and it was especially true with proper names, and such was the case with the Pardue surname as well.

Over the years researchers have found a number of variations on the Pardue surname from a variety of genealogical sources and their research has shown that those different variations have long been in use in Britain, in France, in Italy, Spain, and elsewhere. Until the advent of the DNA testing for use in genealogy and the Perdue/Pardue DNA Project was created, it was never completely certain if they did not all fit together somehow, given that the name historically was not a particularly common one. The Perdue/Pardue DNA Project conclusively demonstrates that they don't all fit together somehow.

The Perdue/Pardue DNA Project consists of two major groups of participants, one group whose predominate origins in America is from Maryland's Eastern Shore whose descendants mostly spell their name "Perdue", and the other, a group whose descendants mostly spell their names "Perdue" and "Pardue" whose earliest known origin was in the watersheds of the Appomattox and James Rivers of Virginia. The Project demonstrates that those two major groups of participants share no recent common ancestor and neither group shares a recent common ancestor with the several other participants in the Project with none of those several participants sharing a recent common ancestor with each other.

The Colonial Virginia families living in the watersheds of the lower Appomattox River with the surnames Perdue and Pardue, and sometimes Purdue, and other spellings documented to be associated with this family are the the focus of this narrative.

As shown from the DNA testing there were at least two variants - Perdue and Pardue - in the Lower Appomattox River watersheds who shared a common ancestor within the previous 15 generations, but at this present time in 2017 no records have been found confirming their relationships to one another and the degree of kinship they shared, or whether they were brothers or cousins, or even if one may have been the father, or grandfather, or uncle, or a more distant relation of the others. The currently known documents are simply too few to correctly sort out their kinship.

These families appear to have arrived in the watersheds of the Appomattox River at the beginning of the eighteenth century.  Early Virginia records bearing any variant of the Pardue and Perdue surnames are limited, as has been shown in a previous post, and none of those few earliest documents, singlely or collectively, can be shown to conclusively refer to the predecessor of these families. Variations in the records of the name include Pardoe, Pardue, Perdue, Purdue, and Pardieu. Research is compounded with so many variations of the spelling of the name, though the "Perdue" variation was the predominate spelling in the records until the middle of the eighteenth century in the colonial period.

Known descendants of a William and possibly a Richard Perdue who lived and continued to live in what became Chesterfield County in 1749 appear to have mostly continued the Perdue spelling down to the present day.  Just across the Appomattox River in Amelia County beginning in 1743 with records of a John Pardue who moved to Granville County, North Carolina in 1761 and died in 1769 in Bute County formed from Granville in 1764, his name and the names of his sons had mostly come to be spelled Pardue in the public records and most of his descendants appear to have generally continued the "Pardue" spelling down to the present. His son, Joseph, in 1757 as shown in the pictures clearly writes his name as Pardue.

While descendants of William Perdue of Chesterfield County, VA appear in the DNA project, no participant purported to descend from Richard has yet joined the DNA project so it remains unknown his relationship, if any, to the William who lived in close proximity to him in Chesterfield County or to the John who lived across the Appomattox River in Amelia County. As previously noted in the DNA post, without documents that confirm descent, DNA confirms only if they were, or were not kin, and not the degree of kinship.

*In the first image, Joseph signed that he received his pay for his service, and in image two, he was a witness to a note and his signature appears in the lower right hand edge of the page.

The papers also include the Muster Roll for Seventh Regiment of the Virginia Company (not shown) in the French and Indian War which spells Joseph's name Purdue.

Genealogy is never done, it is always a Work in Progress!

Early Variants of the P*rdue Name in Colonial Virginia

THE JOSHUA FRY and PETER JEFFERSON MAP OF 1751 COLONIAL VIRGINIA

The following several references are the major records found of the variants of the P*rdue name in the last half of the seventeenth century in Colonial Virginia. For many years Pardue researchers sought to find a record that would link the variant of the surname found in the Appomattox and James Rivers area to the Philip Pardoe variant in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.

A pedigree submitted to LDS Family History Library Archives maintains he was the father of John Pardue of Amelia County who died in 1769 in Bute County, North Carolina. The information submitted was in error as explained in the following paragraphs.

Phillip Pardoe was indentured by the agent, or factor, John Scott, for a period of four years on October 9, 1665, probably in Bristol England, his destination Virginia. Where in Virginia and to whom he was to serve out the indenture was not shown and nothing further is known of him until 1673 when he bought land in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. http://tinyurl.com/3cubbn   He married, probably about the same time he bought the land in Isle of Wight County, a widow, Rebecca Lewis, nee George, the daughter of John George, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and before Philip's death in Isle of Wight County, their union produced two children named in the will of Rebecca's father, John George, written on 2 August 1678, when he left them as "the children of Philip Pardoe.....one heifer of two years old to run in a joint stock betwixt them and the survivors of them to be paid to my said grandchildren's account.." Isle of Wight County, Virginia Deeds and Will Book 2, page 170.

Rebecca Pardoe was surely "ye poor widow Perdue" named in the will of Sir John Lear in Nansemond County in 1695. Henrico County Miscellaneous Records 1650-1807, page 96. John Lear had earlier married Rebecca Pardoe's step-mother, Ann ( ) George, the widow of Rebecca's father, John George. 

When Phillip Pardue, the grandson mentioned in John George's will, the only son of the immigrant, Phillip Pardoe, died in 1720/21, the bloodline possessing Phillip Pardoe's surname died, also. The son, like his father, died intestate and the land that had descended to him from his father, by the intestate law of primogeniture, would have descended by the same law to his son, also named Phillip, who had died as a child, ending Philip's surname bloodline.  Thus, the land descended to the next heir of closest degree of blood kinship, a William Homes or Holmes, who, upon receipt of the land, sold it in 1722 to Mathew Wills.

William Homes (Holmes) may have been a grandson of Phillip Pardoe, the immigrant, which, if William Homes (Holmes) sold it outright with no guardian or trustee involved, he would have then had to have been at least 21 years old in 1722 suggesting by the generational math that he was probably either the son of a possible unknown daughter of the second Phillip who had died, or he was the son of his sister, Elizabeth, who had also died.

If Phillip had no daughter and if his sister had no children, then the heir and next of kin would have been a kinsman of a lesser degree. The intestate law of primogeniture dictated that land was inherited linearly by a descendant of the closest degree of kinship from the original owner. Isle of Wight County Wills and Administrations (1628-1800) Note p. 156-157. Inv. rec. 9 Apr. 1678 p. 162. Inv. & Appr. rec. 9 Aug. 1678. Record of Wills, Deeds, Etc., Vol. 2, 1661-1719 (Reel 23) and Isle of Wight County Wills and Administrations (1628-1800) Note p. 71. 2nd pagination Inv. 4 Appr. rec. 27 Mar. 1721. Deeds, Wills, Great Book, Vol. 2, 1715-1726 (Reel 3) http://tinyurl.com/2hma52I

It is probable that the immigrant, Philip Pardoe, was from the family of that name found in Worcester County, England in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries  http://tinyurl.com/4004 and he may have been the Phillip Pardoe born in 1643 in the parish of Holt in Worcester County, which seems to be the best fit of the names located in the available English parish registers. The earliest parish records of Worcester County begin in the early 1570s. The spellings of the name Pardoe and Pardo in the early English parish registers, with several exceptions, and with the given name of Philip, or Phillip, only appear in the West Midlands, and with several exceptions, mostly in the county of Worcester, and within that county predominately in the town of Omsberley.  In 1987 I visited this very charming and picturesque town with sheep grazing in the parish church yard to see what, if anything, I might find to possibly establish a connection to our Pardue forebears who came to Colonial Virginia. In the end, the best information was already posted in the family history archives of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, now available online at http://www.familysearch.org/. as posted above.

Testing of DNA of male descendants of this early Pardoe family in England compared with the DNA of participants in the Perdue/Pardue DNA Surname Project would determine if this variant of the surname shares the same DNA with any participants in the Perdue/Pardue DNA Surname Project. Perhaps in the future some descendant of those West Midlands families might join the project to see if there might be a shared kinship with the Perdue/Pardue surname dna project. The phone directories in the West Midlands area in the counties of Worcester and Shropshire and Hereford area also showed the Pardue spelling, as well.


In 1681 in York County, Virginia another document records a suit involving a debt owed to a Mr. John Cotton by a Mr. James Pardoe in which a deposition of a Mr. John Heyward states the following verbatim account as published in Tyler's Quarterly Vol. XIV, page 61.

"John Heyward, aged thirty-five years or thereabouts, sayeth That yr Depont, in November last was two years, at the house of James Pardoe, and there did meet with Mr John Cotton who did come to demand tobacco and yr said Depont & Mr Cotton did fall to drinking very hard by ye request of the sd James Pardoe & did continue drinking all day till at night we went to cards, and at cards yr Depont & Mr Cotton had some words & soe broke off from play and did goe each of them to there rest, but yr depont was ordered for to sleep along with the said Pardoe & his wife in the same roome where all the Drink was, soe yt yr Depont & ye said Pardoe did fall to drinking again, and after some discourse the said Pardoe did tell yr Depont yt Mr Cotton was come for to demand Tobo of him upon the accts of Thos. Bevins but the said Pardoe did desire yr depont for to look over Tho. Bevins' papers & to see if his bill was not there among ye papers & the said Pardoe did depart for some time out of the roome & did bring some papers in his hand for your Deponent to looke over. Yr Depont in looking over ye papers did find ye said Bevins' his bill uncanselled and did give it to the said Pardoe and yr depont will swear & further saith not."

John Heyward. Sworn before me the 21 June, 1681--Wm Booth 28th of July 1681 And is recorded -- Pr. E. Jennings, Cl. Cur. Ebor. (Clerk of York County)."

E. Jennings was Edmund Jennings, newly arrived as a young man from England, the son of Sir Edmund Jennings of Ripon, Yorkshire, England, member of Parliament. The young immigrant, Edmund Jennings, almost immediately became a customs agent in York County with increasing rises in position in the Colonial Virginia government over his lifetime: from Deputy Secretary of State in 1696 to Secretary of State for the Colony in 1702 and by 1708 was President of the Council. http://tinyurl.com/2hwnwy

In 1689 using the headrights of 131 immigrants, which included the name of a John Pardoe, Edmund Jennings obtained a grant of 6513 acres of land in Henrico County at Westham in present day Richmond, of which "sd Jennings hath the Governor's grant"... "beg. at Tuckahoe Cr, where it forks into the (James) river...". Virginia Land Patents No. 8, 1689-1695, p.2 (Reel 8).  http://tinyurl.com/346yok

Headrights gave 50 acres of land to each person who paid his own way "for his own personale adventure", or 50 acres to the person who paid the fare of the person transported. This headright system was the means by which the London Company and later, the English Crown, in 1624, when Virginia became a Crown Colony, proposed to populate and permanently settle the colony.

Sir William Berkeley, the Colonial governor from his arrival in Virginia in 1641, used his family's influence and connections in England to attract younger sons of England's gentry to lands and wealth in the Virginia Colony, who were previously unable to inherit landed estates, as determined by England's inheritence laws of entail leaving the landed estates to the first born son. Most of the wealthy first families of Colonial Virginia were those younger sons. Before the English colonization, their options were the clergy, the law or the military, becoming sons of leisure, and increasingly, merchants, when under Henry the VIII the building of the modern English Navy began and merchant shipping increased.

Advertisements were published, not only to attract the younger sons, but, often published to attract others who had no land or hopes for land, who would indenture themselves for a requisite number of years for eventual access to land. Even so, it was not always easy to induce enough people with the desire to "adventure" to Virginia.

The headright system was subject to many instances of misuse and corruption and the instances increased continually through the years. By 1680 there was large scale misuse with duplicate claims, importation of the same person more than once, ship's captains claiming the crews amounting to temporary importations (remember the idea was permanent settlement), using fictitious names and reuse of names sold by clerks, and ultimately, land speculation. Periodic hearings and depositions took place seeking to correct the issues arising out of misuse of the system and in 1699 Sir Francis Nicholson, Lt. Governor of the colony, told, in a deposition to the Board of Trade, that the selling of headrights by his clerks was a common practice.

Headrights, upon the presentation of a receipt of transportation, or upon an oath, were changed into certificates for the warrants necessary to have a survey made of the land for which a patent could be issued. And the certificates could be legally bought and sold and had no time limits. In 1699 the means to acquire a patent of the King's land changed, and while the headrights were still used up to the American Revolution, a patent could be obtained for payment of 5 shillings for each 50 acres of land by any English male citizen willing and able to pay the costs of acquiring and improving the land and paying the quit rents (tax) to the King. It then seems almost without any doubt that Edmund Jennings, as a customs official, would have known from whom and how to obtain certificates necessary to obtain a patent for land, and it is improbable that he imported all of the 131 headrights, if any of them, to obtain the certificates for the 6513 acres of land he received upriver on the James at Tuckahoe Creek.

As a Colonial official almost from the beginning of his arrival in Virginia he lived in the vicinity of Jamestown, as required by the leaders of the colony, so it is almost certain that he never lived on the Henrico land. Six years after receiving the patent, in 1695, he sold half of it to William Randolph indicating the likelihood he was speculating in land. If he bought the certificates used for the patent, or even any of them, then the only thing certain about the John Pardoe, who appeared as a headright in the 1689 patent record, is that a headright bearing his name was issued for a certificate to obtain the 50 acres accounted to his name.

Who imported John Pardoe, when he was imported, or even if he ever arrived in Virginia - headrights were often claimed for persons who died enroute, especially by ship's captains who commanded the ships on which the person was transported - cannot be known from the limited facts presently available. No record links him presently in 2024 to any record that can be construed as being progenitor of the Pardue family a generation later who appear in the watersheds of the Appomattox River. If he indeed arrived in Virginia, it is probable that he was from the same West Midlands, England Pardo/Pardoe families as was the Phillip Pardoe who came to Isle of Wight County.

In the late spring of 1700 a ship, Mary and Ann, commissioned by the leaders of a group of French refugees sailed to Jamestown, Virginia from the English port of Gravesend on England's southern coast. On the ship's manifest, early transcribed and first published probably about 1905 from which the published transcription has been replicated innumerable times, was a passenger transcribed as Jean Tardieu.

Land had been given by England's King William III to the French refugees, not only to provide them a home and to seat a colony in Norfolk County in Virginia, but to relieve England of the influx of those French refugees fleeing persecution in France when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. The edict issued almost a hundred years before had provided for the French refugees limited rights to practice their Calvinist religious beliefs. Altogether there were five ships of French refugees that sailed to Virginia.

The record of the passenger list of the Mary and Ann appears to be the only complete passenger manifest of the five ships of French refugees that sailed to Virginia in that period. A partial list exists of the ship, Peter and Anthony; and some of the names of the third ship, Nassau, are extant. Unfortunately, the passenger records for the other two ships have been lost and it was only recently has it been learned that there was the fifth ship.

The French refugees were called Huguenots in France and a tradition of French Huguenot ancestry has been handed down, as this author has noted previously, through a number of lines of descent of the Appomattox River Pardue/Perdue families.  To determine if the first letter of the surname of Jean Tardieu was possibly incorrectly transcribed as "T" when it was really a "P" in the original manifest, this compiler obtained a microfilmed copy of the original handwritten manifest in the attempt to see if might have been incorrectly transcribed, the capitalization of both of those letters being written similarly in the handwriting of the time. But the microfilm copy of the original manifest was completely faded where the name appeared in the original list and I was unable to read it, so that matter is still unresolved. 

Whether the man whose named has been transcribed as Jean Tardieu was the ancestor of the Pardue families who first appeared in the watersheds of the Appomattox and James Rivers of Virginia cannot be determined from the information available heretofore, but neither can the possibility be discounted, even should the original manuscript show the capital of the surname rendered unmistakenly as a "T".

It is the opinion of this compiler from the number of the various accounts of Huguenot ancestry, that the paternal ancestor of the Pardue families in Henrico, Amelia, and Chesterfield counties of Virginia was among those French Refugees, but, at present, it cannot be determined from the information presently found.  More on the probable French refugees connection will be presented in the post, Huguenot Or Not.

Genealogy is never done; it is always a work in progress!

Perdue/Pardue DNA Project

The Perdue/Pardue DNA Project

If the male DNA matches up with another male participant possessing the DNA of a participant possessing the same or similar surname, it can confirm or not, whether there is a common ancestor and determine if you are on the right track in your research. However, only documented evidence can provide the degree of kinship to the common ancestor and it can provide a time frame of possibilities of when the common ancestor lived, but it cannot determine the exact relationship - only that there was one.

The Perdue/Pardue DNA Project at http://tinyurl.com/28lqje proves kinship through the P*rdue male line "Y" chromosome and must have a P*rdue surnamed male to prove ancestry. Females researchers should look to brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins, and grandfathers, etc. with the P*rdue surname to prove ancestry and males not possessing the P*rdue surname should look to the male line of their closest male kin with the P*rdue surname.

DNA testing of even so small a sampling of the participants in the above link to the project has determined that the P*rdue families early living in the watersheds of the lower Appomattox River area of Colonial Virginia had no kinship with the P*rdue families early living on the Eastern Shore of Colonial Maryland. And other participants in the project bearing the surname(s) or any of its variations show no kinship at all to either of those two larger groups of participants or even to each other.
The following list shows some of the possibilities of what DNA testing can do in the research for your family history:

* - determine if two people are related
* - find out if others with your surname are related
* - determine if two people descended from the same ancestor

     if the paper trail verifies the descent
* - provide an approximate time frame for the common ancestor
* - confirm your family tree
* - find others to whom you are related
* - determine a possible point of origin for your surname
* - prove or disprove a research theory
* - determine if other surnames are variants of your surname
* - for surnames with multiple points of origin, determine the possible points
* - provide clues for further research* - identify a location for further research
* - verify ancestors migration

To help interpret the above chart the following may prove helpful:
Distance Relatedness Explanation:
Tested at 12 markers:
Matches of less than 9/12 – the two participants do not share a common ancestor*
Matches of 9/12 - there is a tiny chance that the participants share a common ancestor. You'll need to test at 37 markers to find a true shared genetic match that starts with such a low match. (The author has not yet seen a 9/12 become an accepted genetic match - but knows of one case.)

Matches of 10/12 – there is a small chance that the participants share a common ancestor. Increase to 25 markers and re-evaluate Matches of 11/12 and 12/12 – an improved chance that the participants share a common ancestor. Increase to 25 markers and re-evaluate CAUTION: a 12/12 match - even with the same surname - can be a random match. If a solid paper trail connects the 12/12 match, you can be reasonably certain of shared ancestry, but without the connecting paper trail - you can only be sure by upgrading to at least 25 markers.
Tested at 25 markers:
Matches of less than 21/25 – the two participants do not share a common ancestor*
Matches of 21/25 & 22/25 – there is a small chance that the participants share a common ancestor. (Consider all of the traditional genealogy insights and try to obtain more participants to represent the affected families.) Upgrade to 37 markers

Matches of 23/25, 24/25 & 25/25 – there is a high probability that participants who share a surname share a common ancestor. If there is no shared paper trail, a comparison at 37 or 67 markers can be useful.

Tested at 37 markers:Matches of less than 31/37 – the two participants do not share a common ancestor*
Matches of 31/37 and 32/37 - the two participants have a small possibility that may share a common ancestor from the early days of surnames. (This is an area with little clear insight.) An upgrade to 67 markers is encouraged

Matches of 33/37 - some researchers consider this to be a match and some don't. (If there is a shared common ancestor - it will be more than a few 100s of years ago.) Upgrade to 67 markers for additional clarity
Matches of 34/37, 35/37, 36/37 & 37/37 - the participants share a recent common ancestor. 

Tested at 67 markers:
Matches of less than 60/67 – the two participants probably do not share a common ancestor*. (This is still being studied - but unless your match is nearly 60/67 and you have some reason to believe there is a shared ancestor since the advent of surnames - you should consider your near miss as "no match" )
Matches of 60/67 and 61/67 - the two participants may share a common ancestor from the early days of surnames. (This is still being studied)

Matches of 62/67 and better - researchers consider these to be a match - indicating a shared common ancestor.

* "We mean a common direct paternal ancestor within the historical period of surnames."

Genealogy is never done, it is always a Work In Progress!

Land Use, Possession, and Transfer Terms

Some terms found on land transactions from the previous post "Legally Speaking" will also appear on this list; however, the terms in this post apply only to land proceedings.

Accession - Adding on. In civil law, the right to all that one's property produces, not just the property itself.

Adminstrator(m)/administratrix(f) - Person appointed by the court to settle the estate of someone who died intestate.

Admit - see Copyhold.

Ad quod damnum - A writ causing an evaluation of damages that might result from someone's actions.Example: you wish to dam a creek on your land to power a mill. The pond may damage another's land.

Adverse Possession - Gaining title to another's land by exercising the rights of ownership of that land unchallenged for a period of time, typically on the order of five to ten years, and meeting other requirements (as set by each state). See seizin.

Alien - To transfer (lands, title) to another.

Alienation - A transfer of title or property to another.

Allodial - see alodium.

Alodium - Land owned independently, without rent or other obligation to another. See Freehold Estate. The alodial (also 'allodial') system is opposed to the feudal system.

Appurtenances - Easements, rights of way, or agreements attached to land.

Assignee - See assigns. Often seen in conjunction with land warrants which were assigned (sold) to speculators.

Assigns - Anyone acting on behalf of or in place of the nominal owner. The owner may have transferred or sold his rights to someone else or appointed an attorney to act on his behalf.

At will - Terminable by the lord of the manor at any time.

Bargain - Mutual agreement among two or more people to exchange or purchase goods.

Bargain and Sale Deed - A type of deed in which title is transferred but in which there is usually no guarantee as to the validity of title.

Bequest - A gift of personal property made in a will. See also devise.

Bond for Deed/Title - A promise to convey land when paid at some point in the future.

Burgage - A tenure in which burgesses or townsfolk held lands or tenements of the lord, usually for a fixed rent. In Scotland the term related to tenure in property in the royal burghs.

Cadastral Map - Land ownership map. Generally used for tax purposes.Caution - In the U.K., Canada, and elsewhere, a restriction on disposition of property by the registered owner, placed by a person who claims a right on the property in question.

Cesser - Failure of a tenant who holds land in return for services to perform those services.

Chattel - A tangible, movable article of personal property, as opposed to real property.

Claim - see Entry.

Collateral - Property put up by someone getting a loan. If they fail to repay the loan, the collateral goes to the person granting the loan.

Color of Title - A deed appearing to convey title but in fact not conveying title, either because the grantor did not have title to convey or because the conveyance was flawed in some way.

Condemn - The taking of privately owned land for public use by eminent domain. In the U.S. just compensation must be provided for any lands thus taken.

Consideration - The money (or other property) used to purchase land.

Convey - To transfer property or the title to property from one person to another.

Copyhold - A tenancy at will that was recorded in a manorial court ownership roll. The lord of the manor maintained the list. Copyholds were not, strictly speaking, inheritable, but were customarily so. The land reverted to the landowner who would then "admit" the heir to the lands of the decedent.

Covenant - A stipulation. A promise to do or not do something.Customary Estate - see copyhold

Decedent - one who has died.

Deed - A document giving the holder the title to property. More generally, any document sealing an agreement, contract, etc. The most common types of deeds Bargain and Sale, Quitclaim, and Warranty.

Deed of trust - A transfer of property to someone to be held in trust for another. See trust. More specifically, however, deeds of trust are used in a number of states instead of a mortgage to secure a loan. The deed of trust names the trustees in whom title is placed as security against failure to meet the terms of the loan.

Deed poll - A deed not indented, that is, a deed made by one party only. See indenture.

Deforce - To forcibly withhold property from its rightful owner.

Demesne - 1) Possession of land as one's own. 2) The part of an estate worked for the owner. 3) Land adjoining the manor house.

Demise - Generally a synonym for 'lease', both noun and verb.

Devise - A gift of real property made in a will. See also bequest.

Dower - A wife's interest in her husband's property, inheritable at his death. English probate law set this at 1/3. "Her thirds" was a phrase used for this. In the U.S. it was common for a woman to formally relinquish her dower claim on land sold by the husband. This further guaranteed that the property was clear of all obligations. In some areas the lack of a dower relinquishment at the time of sale was proof that the man was single or widowed. See also jointure.

Easement - Use of a portion of property for some stated purpose without remuneration. Easements are not estates in that they do not convey ownership, but rather the use of the property in so far as needed for the stated purpose. An example is the easement a city may have to dig up part of your land to repair the water main. Easement is a right. Contrast with servitude.

Ejectment - A suit by an owner to reclaim ownership from a tenant who has overstayed the terms of a lease. Originally it was a suit brought by a fictitious tenant to try the title of the landlord in order to acquire the land under lease.

Emolument - Profit derived from employment or labor, including wages and other compensation.

Encroachment - To gain unlawfully or infringe on the property of another.

Encumbrance - A burden on a property, generally one that affects the ability to transfer title, or one which affects the condition of the property. Examples are liens, mortgages, taxes, easements, water rights, etc.

Enfeoff - To invest with an estate held in fee.

Enfeoffment - Giving ownership in fee. A deed or legal document giving ownership in fee.

Entail - To create a fee tail, or to create one from fee simple.

Entry - Filing of the intention to get a land grant or patent. This was the first step of a multi-step process of getting land, the other steps generally being Survey, and Grant.

Escheat - Land ownership reverting to the Crown, government, or estate owner because of a lack of heirs or breach of condition to ownership. See also forfeiture.

Esse - In esse (Latin). In existence. See also posse.

Estate - A property right held by someone. There can be many estates held on a single piece of property, for example, relating to specific uses of the property. Mineral rights, water rights, and so on are examples. Estates can be subordinate (lower in rank) to other estates.

Et al - Latin et alia, for "and others".

Et ux - Latin et uxor, for "and wife".

Exception - A clause in a deed whereby the seller retains some right currently held on the land being sold, for example, "my land except 3 acres...", "my land except mineral rights...". In both cases the seller owned the thing being excepted. See also Reservation.Exception and Reservation - A general term found in deeds when a seller retains some kind of interest in the property. Technically the language should refer to a reservation or exception as needed but many deeds are written with this catchall phrase.

Executor/executrix - The person named in a will to carry out the terms of the will. See administrator.Fee - Heritable land held in return for service to a lord.

Fee simple - Ownership of land that can be inherited by any heirs. To hold in fee means to possess.

Fee tail - Ownership of land restricted to a specified class of heirs, generally direct descendants.

Fem Covert - A married woman.

Feoff - See fee.

Feoffment - Transfer of inheritable real property.

Feoffee - One who benefits from a fief.

Feud - See fee.

Feudal system - The system of land holding in exchange for service, ultimately to the king. This is opposed to the alodial system.

Fief - See fee.

Fieri Facias - A common law writ to enforce collection of a debt. Typically executed by the sheriff, the property of the debtor is sold to satisfy the claim.

Forfeiture - Loss of property for failure to obey the law, or reversion of title to the sovereign because of default or an offense. It can be applied to any part of an interest of ownership. See also escheat.

Freehold - see fee simple.

Grant - Transfer of title from the government to the first titleholder of a piece of property. This term is generally used by states and the federal government. See also patent.

Grantee - The person receiving a grant, or buying property.

Grantor - The person issuing the grant, or selling property.

Headright - A Virginia sytem of land patents, prevalent in the 1600's in which immigrants, including minor children, were entitled to 50 acres of land apiece. It was customary for the person paying passage to claim the headright, though the right appears to belong to the immigrant. Headrights could be sold or assigned to others. A headright system was also used in other states including South Carolina and Georgia.

Hereditament - Anything that can be inherited. A corporeal hereditament is tangible real or personal property that can be inherited. An incorporeal hereditament includes intagible appurtenances, rents, and the like.

Importation right - See headright.

Improve - To make land more valuable by clearing and planting. Land that was not improved by the owner might revert to the government.

In capite - Latin - An estate in land held by direct grant of the king.Incumbrance - See encumbrance.

Indefeasible Estate - An estate that cannot be changed under any circumstances.

Indenture - A written agreement. (Originally, the document was written in duplicate, and the two copies placed side by side and 'indented', or cut, with a wavy line so they fit together perfectly.) See also deed poll.

Ingress and Egress - The entering and leaving of land and the means of doing so.

In personam - Latin - A legal action against a person.

In rem - Latin - A legal action to affect the interests of people in a thing such as a parcel of land. Examples would be partitioning an estate or foreclosing. See also in personam.

Intangible property - The opposite of tangible property. Examples are property rights, easements, copyrights and other things of value that have no physical presence. Also, certificates or other items that have no inherent value but which represent something physical.

Intestate - Having no will. If someone dies intestate, the court appoints an administrator to settle the estate.

Instrument - Legal document.Investiture - See livery of seizin.

Joint tenancy - Ownership by two or more people, with rights of survivorship. Tenants can act individually to partition or sell their interest in the property, but such actions create a tenancy in common. See also tenancy by the entirety.

Jointure - Property given to a prospective wife, to be enjoyed by her at her husband's death. Differs from dower in the way in which her future is protected.

Lease and Release - A practice in early Virginia that is equivalent to a sale. It was accomplished by a two step process of leasing the property in question to the buyer, then releasing the buyer of the lease obligation.

License - A personal privilege or permission to make some use of land owned by another.

Lien - A charge or claim upon someone's property as security for a debt. A lien does not confer title. The law recognizes the right to have a debt satisfied out of someone's property.

Life(time) Estate - An estate with duration limited to the lifetime of the holder or some other person. See remainder.

Livery - Delivery of ownership.

Livery of Seizin - An open and 'notorious' public ceremony conferring ownership of a freehold estate.

Locator - A person who determines or establishes the boundaries of land or a mining claim.

Messuage - A dwelling house with its adjacent buildings and lands appropriated to the use of the household.

Moiety - One half. One of two equal parts. A share or portion.

More or less - This term is frequently used in deeds to qualify acreage, e.g. "50 acres, being the same more or less". Even accurate surveys have some error in the calculation of area and this phrase recognizes that fact.

Mortgage - Today we think of this as a secured loan (for example, a loan with a house as collateral). In older times it was often written as a regular deed of sale with a condition attached such that the sale was void if certain payments are not made by a certain date. With a mortgage, if the borrower fails to pay the mortgage note off, the mortgagor must successfully sue in order to sell the property and recover the loan. See deed of trust for a different way of establishing security for a loan.

Mutation - In India, the process of legally changing a parcel's owner. It results in an updated RTC (Record of Right Tenancy and Cultivation), the backbone of the Indian land record system.

Parcel - A piece of land. A tract.

Patent - Transfer of title from the government to the first titleholder of a piece of property. This term was generally used by the Crown or its representative. See also grant.

Payoff Deed - In Arizona and perhaps elsewhere, a deed of ownership issued when seller receives full payment under the terms of a deed of trust or agreement of sale.

Planting and Seating - See improve. In Virginia colonial law a patentee was required to cultivate an acre of land and build a small house on the property, otherwise the patent would revert to the government.

Posse - In posse (Latin). In the future or which might exist in the future. See also esse.

Possessory - Relating to ownership.

Premises - A somewhat fluid term meaning land and its appurtenances, or land and its buildings and structures.

Private Road Maintenance Agreement - An agreement between all property owners that abut a private road to maintain that road. Lenders require this agreement if the private road is the only access to a property.

Privity - A relationship between parties having a direct or indirect interest in a legal matter. Class actions are an example where parties not involved in a suit have a privity relation to it. Parties in estate transactions necessarily have privity, and so do heirs of an estate.

Prove Up - See Improve.

Probate - The process of proving a decedent's will and settling the estate. The signing of a will was typically witnessed by neighbors, who would later swear in court that they saw the decedent sign the will prior to death. This "proved" that the will was actually that of the decedent.

Property - Any kind of thing which has a value and which one can exercise the rights of ownership upon, including possession, use, and disposal.

Quitclaim Deed - A common type of deed in which the seller relinquishes claim to whatever rights were held on the property, but does not guarantee that that the property is actually free of claims by others.

Quitrent - A rent paid in lieu of required feudal services. See fee and socage. The quitrent can be considered a real estate tax.

Real property - Land. See also chattel.

Remainder - Transfer of ownership to someone on the death of another. For example, land may be sold to person A for use during their lifetime, then remaindered to person B at the death of A.

Remise - To relinquish a claim to something, specifically to release or quitclaim an interest in real estate.

Replevin - An action for recovery of property that has been illegally withheld from the rightful owner, plus damages for its detention. This is generally not an action to recover the value of the withheld property, but the actual property itself.

Reservation - A clause in a deed wherein seller retains a right in the land being sold but the specific right did not previously exist. "Reserving a right of way" is an example if the right of way did not previously exist. See also Exception.

Revert - Return of ownership to a former owner (or heirs).

Right of Way - An easement for passage across someone's land.
Room - "in the room of" means in the place of, instead of.

Scire Facias - A writ requiring a party to show why a judgment should not be vacated, executed, or annulled.

Seised/Seized - Legally owning and possessing real property.Seisin/Seizin - Ownership or 'in fact' possession of a freehold estate. Inferred here is an increasing degree of ownership with the passage of time, as the possessor makes productive use of the land. Seizin was originally not an estate, but a way to gain one, as by adverse possession. This is rooted in the Roman concept that whoever worked the land should be its owner.

Sergeantry - Non-military service to a lord in exchange for land.

Servitude - An encumbrance attached to land, specifically one that imposes a burden on the owner. Contrast with easement.

Socage - Holding of land by a tenant in return for fixed payment or for non-military service to the lord. This system was eventually replaced by our system of taxation. See quitrent.

Soke - The jurisdiction of a court.

Special Warranty Deed - A warranty deed constrained to the period during which seller owned the property. Claims for title defects that predate the seller's ownership period are not warranteed.

Straw Deed, Strawman Deed - Two deeds filed in succession, the first from party A to party B, second from B back to A. This was used to sidestep legal restrictions of sales between spouses or joint owners, or to incorporate a new survey description. Party B is a trusted intermediary, either a close friend or attorney.

Tangible property - The opposite of intangible property. Examples are land or other movable personal property that has a physical reality.

Tenancy by the entirety - A form of joint tenancy held by husband and wife. Title automatically transfers to the survivor upon the death of one party. Neither party can sell or divide the property without the consent of the other.

Tenancy in common - Title held by two or more people where each person can sell their interest without the consent of the other owners. There are no rights of survivorship.

Tenement - Permanent property, whether concrete or not, such as land, buildings, cars, or the stock represented by a stock certificate. In most common usage it means a house or building.

Teste - (Latin). Witness.

Testate - Having a will.

Thirds - see dowerTitle - Legal ownership as evidenced by a deed or other instrument.To wit - That is to say.

Tract - A piece of land. A parcel.

Trespass - In common law, a suit to recover damages directly made to one's person, property, or rights.

Trespass on the case - Similar to trespass, but for damages suffered indirectly.

Trust - Confidence placed in someone by giving them property to be held or used for another's benefit. The property held in trust.

Trustee - An individual to whom another's property is entrusted.

Try Title - To test the validity of someone's title to property.

Vacate - 1) To set aside or render void, 2) to move out.

Viz., Vizt. - Videlicet (Latin). That is to say.

Warrant - A governmental order authorizing some action. An arrest warrant instructs a sheriff to arrest someone. A land warrant instructs a state to issue land to someone.

Warranty Deed - A deed in which the seller warrants having a valid title and that the property is clear of any encumbrances. See also Special Warranty Deed.

Waste Land - Land that has not been claimed, or which has escheated.



Abbreviations:
Assee - Assignee
B for D - Bond for Deed
Comr D - Commissioners' Deed
DOV - Declaration of Value (real estate transfer tax declaration)
Dwr Rls - Dower Release
Fi Fa - Fieri facias
L & R - Lease and Release
P of A - Power of Attorney
QCD - Quitclaim Deed
WD - Warranty Deed
T.A.B. - Trespass, Assault, and Battery.
TOC - Trespass on the case

Sources "Black's Law Dictionary""Law Dictionary", Steven H. Gifis, 1996, Barron's Educational Series "Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary", 1979Jerry R. Broadus, LS, Esq., "The Surveyor and the Law", regular column in P.O.B.


Genealogy is never done, it is always a work in progress!

Legally Speaking

 


18th Century Virginia Law

The following is an introduction to legal terms and meanings in 18th century Virginia for any questions that might be raised on material that appears on this website. Most of the terms also apply to the other colonial southern states, as well.


Legal Age:

Under the common law, full majority was reached at the age of 21. Under 21 was legally an infant. Only persons who had reached the age of 21 could perform certain legal actions:

- Buy or sell land without restriction
- Vote or hold public office
- Bring suit in one’s own name
- Devise land in a will
- Sign a bond or note
- Patent land
- Marry without consent
- Act as a guardian
- Serve on a jury

For a detailed discussion of legal age, see Blackstone, Commentaries on The Laws of England, Book 1, Chapter 17. http://tinyurl.com/2dgcb4

Children aged 14 and over could perform a variety of legal actions:

- Witness deeds and contracts
- Bequeath personal property in a will
- Testify in court
- Be an executor [at the age of 17]
- Choose a guardian
- Apprentice themselves without parental consent

To narrow down legal meanings in 18th century public documents in Virginia, the following list of legal terms was obtained from an article published from a speech by Mr. John P. Alcock, President of Friends of the Virginia State Archives, presented November 17, 1999 at the Library of Virginia. To read his whole speech click on the following: http://tinyurl.com/ys4uj8

Definitions of legal terms used in the 18th century:

Abate. An order to suspend or terminate a law-suit usually because of the death of one of the parties,

Benefit of clergy. Criminal cases where the punishment involved the"loss of life or member", except for trials of slaves, were heard by the General Court. Because its records have been lost, "benefit of clergy" will be found only in county courts of oyer and terminer (q.v.). The formality was invoked to commute a death sentence received for one of the many relatively minor crimes that legally warranted it. The term derived from the time in England when any capital sentence could be appealed to the ecclesiastical courts. Its use was abolished in 1789.

Bequest - devise. Personal property is bequeathed; real property is devised.

Capius, alias capius, pluries capius. Orders for a sheriff to arrest,confiscate, attach, or otherwise take something from a party to a case. Alias capius is a repeat order when the first one could not be carried out. Pluries capius is a third try.

Chancery - equity. Chancery court heard appeals to equity from decisions that had been based on common law, the unwritten English law based on custom and precedent. Equity was the legal system aimed at remedying the inflexibility of the common law to provide a fair and equitable resolution of a dispute. However, when Dickens' Mr. Bumble said "The law is a ass", he was referring to a case in chancery. Many chancery suits were about excuses for failure to settle debts, but others were between relatives fighting over the division of property making them a prime source of genealogical data. Common law and equity differed from statutory law enacted by a legislature.

According to Black’s Law Dictionary, a Chancery Cause is a case of equity where “Justice is administered according to fairness as contrasted with the strictly formulated rules of common law.” A judge, not a jury, determines the outcome of the case. These types of records are useful when researching genealogical information and land or estate divisions and may contain correspondence, lists of heirs, or vital statistics, among other items. Some of the more common types of chancery causes are:

1. Division of the estate of a person who died intestate (without a will)

2. Divorces: Prior to 1842, divorces required an act of the General Assembly, but the county could grant legal separations. After 1842, County and Circuit Courts had the power to grant divorces.

3. Settlements of dissolved business partnerships.

4. Resolution of land disputes.

Chattel. Movable personal property as opposed to land, buildings, andthings attached to them.

Coram nobis. A writ to correct a mistake of the court.

Court of oyer and terminer. A special county court, the members of which held appointments separate from those of justices of the peace, although most served on both courts. Literally meaning to hear and determine, it was the court that had jurisdiction over trials of slaves for capital offenses.

Facias - fiere facias - scire facias. Facias was used for an order ofthe court to an officer of it to "cause" something . Fiere facias meant cause it to be done. Scire facias meant cause him to know.

Feasance. Doing an act as a condition or duty. Meanings of malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance are obvious.

Fee simple - fee tail. Land held in fee simple can be sold or devised absolutely and without any limitation to any particular class of heirs. Land in fee tail had been entailed and could only be inherited by a special class of heirs, those denominated some where along the path of succession by an owner in fee simple who elected to do so for a particular heir, usually by the clause in his will "and the heirs of his(or her) body". Fee tail was eliminated and converted into fee simple in Virginia as of October 7, 1776.

Feoff. To give possession of land.

Freehold. An estate in land held in fee simple, fee tail, or for life.

Grant - patent - deed: A patent is a special kind of a grant, namely the granting to some one of public land by a government body. In the Proprietary of the Northern Neck the terms were used interchangeably for land granted by Thomas, Lord Fairfax and his predecessors as Proprietors.

Deeds. Per 1734 law "all bargains, sales, and other conveisances (sic) whatsoever of any lands, tenements, and hereditaments, whether they be made for passing any estate of freehold or inheritance or for a term of years, and all deeds of settlement upon marriage and all deeds of trust" must be acknowledged or proved and then recorded.

Patents. An early law to encourage immigration to Virginia gave 50 acres of land for each person who paid for the transportation into the Colony.Transport across the Potomac from Maryland counted equally to bringing someone from Europe. Certification of the entry was made by a jury of the county court where the land was located. Certificates could be bought and sold. The patent escheated if there was no legal heir and no one had bought the land before the patentee died.

Escheat: meant it reverted to the crown, or in Northern Virginia after 1692 to the Proprietor of the Northern Neck. A 1713 law applying to all new patents required that 3 acres must be cleared, tended, and worked out of every 50 acres classified asarable land. On "barren" land, up to 2/3 of the total in the patent, the patentee had to keep 3 "neat" cattle, or 6 sheep and goats. If not completed within 3 years of the date of the patent, it was supposed to be void.

Guardian ad litem. A court-appointed temporary guardian to act for a minor involved in a law-suit, only for that specific case.

Imparlance. An extension of time granted to a party to a law-suit to plead the case.

In-law. Not necessarily a person related by marriage. Father-in-law could have its present meaning or could mean step-father. Son-in-law and daughter-in-law also had two uses.

Infant. A minor, any one under the age of 21.

Indenture. Any deed, written contact, or sealed agreement. The term comes from a deed or agreement executed in two or more copies with their edges correspondingly indented for identification.

Moiety. One half.

Next friend. A person authorized to represent some one, such as a minor, married woman, or mental incompetent, disqualified to act on his own behalf in a court of law.

Quitrent. Originally a rent paid by a freeholder to a feudal lord in lieu of services that might otherwise have been due him. In the Proprietary of the Northern Neck it was paid to the Proprietor. In the remainder of Colonial Virginia it was paid to the King, i.e. the government, and in essence was a tax.

Replevy/replevin. The common law action for the recovery of goods or chattels wrongfully taken or retained.

Seisin/seizin. The right to possession of estates of freehold, sometimes delivered by a common law ceremony in which the seller handed the buyer a twig or other item from the land.

Servants. Per 1705 law, children imported to the Colony were to be brought to court by their masters within to have their ages judged. If they did not have an indenture and were over 19, they were to serve only 5 years, and if under 19, only until they were 24. If their age had not been officially adjudged, they would serve only five years. Freedom dues given on completion of servitude were fixed at "10 bushels Indian corn, 30 shillings in money or goods, one well fixed musket or fusee of the value of at least 20 shillings". . Women were to receive 15 bushels of corn and 40 shillings.

Suits for debt. Suits by creditors to obtain payment of debts were tried in the county of residence of the debtor. (This condition provides an important clue for research in order or minute books. A defendant is always a resident of the county, a plaintiff may be from anywhere. Furthermore suits abated with respect to a defendant who had moved out of the county.) If the suit was for less than 25 shillings or 200 pounds of tobacco, the judgment of any justice of the peace was binding. From that amount to 5 pounds Virginia money or 1000 pounds of tobacco, the court ruled without a jury. Above that limit the suit was to be tried at common law, meaning before a jury.

Witnesses. Witnesses in county courts were paid a per diem (in 1727 30 pounds tobacco ) regardless of whether they were residents of the county or not. Only if they were not residents of the county, did they get traveling expenses (1 1/2 pounds tobacco per mile). These costs were charged to the party who had the witness summoned.

Women's Rights. In Colonial Virginia a woman by marrying became "one body"with her husband (Matthew 19, verses 5 - 6). Together with "wives besubject to your husbands" (Ephesians 5, verses 22-24), these dictums were the basis of English law and continued as American law well into the 19th century.

The result was that rights of a married women were severely restricted. With certain exceptions, she was not allowed to own land in her own right nor to make a will. Any real property that she brought to a marriage automatically became her husbands, unless she had insisted on a prenuptial agreement signed before the marriage took place.. Even after she was widowed and had received a life interest in a specific third of her late husband's land following a division of the estate made by court-appointed commissioners, she had no say as to whom it would pass after she was gone. She could not sue in a court of law other than by the same "next friend" procedure provided for minors and the mentally incompetent.

She had no legal say over who would be the guardian of their minor children after her husband had died or what religion they would be raised in, if her husband's will had provisos to those effects. If her husband had been too poor to assure that she and her children were not going to become a public charge, she had no power to prevent the children from being taken away from her and bound out to a stranger.

Only if a woman was an adult and unmarried, either as a widow or never a bride, could she sue in court, act as an executrix or administratrix, be officially designated as the guardian of her children, enter into contracts including indenture of servants, own slaves, sell or buy land, or obtain an ordinary license. If a servant, she could take direct court action against her master for ill treatmentor of his not abiding by the terms of the indenture. Whether or not she was married, she could witness documents and testify freely in court about them. Obviously she couldn't vote, serve on a jury, or hold any public office.

Some provisions of 18th Century Virginia Laws.

Powers of County Courts (hustings courts in towns like Williamsburg and Fredericksburg).

1. Hear all civil suits brought before it. (Suits involving large sums ofmoney or other important matters could go directly to the GeneralCourt.)

2. Judge criminal cases except those where penalties could be loss of life or member. In those cases act as if it was a grand jury deciding on whether to indict the alleged offender, and if indicted, bond him and the witnesses to appear.

3. Admit wills to probate, grant administration, and appoint appraisers.

4. Appoint guardians for orphans. Bind out orphans of small estate.

5. Compel accounting by executors, administrators, and guardians.

6. Order the recording of deeds after hearing acknowledgments by grantors or confirmation of validity by witnesses.

7. Grant ordinary licenses and prescribe liquor prices.

8. Appoint juries to recommend routes for requested new roads or sites for new watermills and act on the requests.

9. Appoint "surveyors" to oversee the maintenance of a road.

10. Contract for the building of "gaols",courthouses, bridges, etc.

11. Recommend persons to the Governor for appointment as justices, sheriff, militia officers, tax commissioners, and take their oaths of office.

12. Appoint deputy sheriffs, constables, and patrolmen.

13. Grant licenses to attorneys to practice before the bar of the county.

Expanded definition of some of the above legal terms and others not mentioned....taken from Black's Law Dictionary :

Admiralty - a court which has very extensive jurisdiction of maritime cases, civil and criminal, and questions of prize

Attainer - that extinction of civil rights and capacities which takes place whenever a person who has committed treason or felony receives sentence of death for his crime

Bill of Attainder - a legislative act, directed against an individual person, pronouncing him guilty of an alleged crime (usually treason) without trial or conviction, and passing sentence of death and attainder upon him

Benefit of Clergy - (in Latin, "Privilegium Clericale") originally, an exemption to clergymen from jurisdiction of the secular courts; later, a privilege of exemption from punishment of death accorded to "clerks," those who could read

Compurgator - one of several neighbors of a person accused of a crime, who appeared in a church court and swore they believed the defendant on his oath

Corruption of Blood - in English law the consequence of attainder, being that the attained person could neither inherit lands or other hereditaments from his ancestor, nor retain those he already had, nor transmit them by descent to any heir, because his blood was considered in law to be corrupted

Deodand - (Latin, "a thing to be given to God") Any personal chattel which was the immediate occasion of the death of any reasonable creature was forfeited to the Crown.

Escheat in feudal law: an obstruction in the cause of descent, and consequent determination of the tenure, by some unforeseen contingency, in which case the land naturally results back by way of reversion, to the original grantor, or lord: in American law: a reversion of property to the state in consequence of a want of any individual competent to inherit

Felony at common law: an offense occasioning total forfeiture of either lands or goods to which capital or other punishment might be superadded according to the degree of guilt: under feudal law an act or offense on the part of the vassal, which cost him his fee which became forfeited as a result of perfidy, ingratitude, or disloyalty to a lord

Femes convert - (French, literally "married woman") in common law, a legal defense available to a woman who could prove that her husband has caused her to commit a felony

Forfeiture - something to which the right is lost by the commission of a crime: the loss of land by a tenant to his lord, as the consequence of some breach of fidelity; the loss of lands & goods to the state, as consequence of crime

In personam - (from Roman law) an act or proceeding done or directed against a specific person

In rem - (from Roman law) an act or proceeding done or directed against an object

Misdemeanor - all crimes and offenses lower than felonies

Moiety - the half of anything; in admiralty law, the portion of the seized cargo paid to the customs informant

Peine forte et dure - (French, "strong and lasting punishment") under feudal law: imprisoning a defendant until the defendant willingly agreed to a jury trial: later heavy objects were laid upon the individual until the individual agreed to a trial or was pressed to death.

Vice-admiralty courts in English law - Courts established in the king's possessions beyond the seas, with jurisdiction over maritime causes, including those relating to prize.

These definitions have been drawn from: Black's Law Dictionary [1968] and Words and Phrases [1964].


Genealogy is never done, it is always a Work in Progress!