Glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Affidavit: | a written statement sworn on oath for use in a court of law. |
| Assizes: | courts of royal jurisdiction, comprised of judges, travelling on circuits out from Westminster to the counties to hear civil and criminal cases. Assizes could be held three or four times a year depending on the amount of business. They were replaced by the Crown Courts in 1971. |
| Attestation: | administration of the oath of allegiance to recruits in the armed forces or the police, whose details were recorded on attestation forms. |
| Attorney: | forerunner of the solicitor particularly in the courts of King´s Bench and Common Pleas, associated with the assizes and common law work. An act of 1729 allowed attorneys to be admitted as solicitors in Chancery. After the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 the term became obsolete and was replaced by solicitor. |
| Common Law: | law based on documents, customs and precedents created through judges´ decisions. |
| Court Baron: | A manorial court of all the tenants on a manor, responsible for the regulation and customs of the manor, and the surrender and admission of tenants to customary holdings. |
| Court Leet: | a manorial court of record attended by a minimum of two freeholders and the tenants, it had jurisdiction over minor offences and local administration. |
| Decree: | a judgement in a court of equity, either final or provisional ´interlocutory´. |
| Denization: | process whereby a foreign-born person or ´alien´ came under the protection of the Crown and could enjoy many of the rights of a native born subject. Became obsolete after the Naturalization Acts of 1844 and 1870. |
| Equity: | law based on fairness and conscience, and the evidence of witnesses or interested parties. |
| Fine: | a payment to the Crown or a feudal lord, or as a final agreement or ´concord´ approved by a court transferring property by means of a fictitious legal case between parties. The courts copy of the agreement being the foot of fine. |
| Frankpledge: | View of: the system of tithing (groups of ten men), where they pledged responsibility for each other´s good behaviour. The view or report was made at the manorial Court Leet (q.v.). |
| Indenture: | originally a document cut into two parts, each part being a copy. Later, it came to mean any deed or document for contract or title, articles, leases, apprenticeships etc. |
| Manorial Courts: | see Court Baron, and Court Leet and View of Frankpledge. |
| Muster: | a roll or register of all officers and men of a regiment or army unit, or of a ship´s company recording those present and the reasons for those absent. |
| Naturalisation: | process by which a foreign-born person or ´alien´ becomes a British citizen. Until 1844 they could only be naturalised by act of Parliament, after 1844, application was made to the Home Secretary who could grant naturalisation. |
| Nonconformist: | anyone not conforming to the beliefs of the established Church of England. These included Independents, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists and other dissenting groups, hence they were also known as dissenters. |
| Quarter Sessions: | quarterly meetings of the county justices of the peace to hear civil and criminal cases. The more serious cases would be reserved for the Assizes. The justices also issued licenses for a number of trades and occupations, and made orders for various aspects of county administration. |
| Solicitor: | originally associated with the court of Chancery doing civil law work relating to trusts, wills etc. Solicitors had to be sworn and admitted by judges before they could practice in common law courts. |
| Subsidy: | a tax raised with the approval of Parliament. |
| Warrant: | a written order or instruction to an official, or an appointment to hold office or rank in the armed forces or police. |
| Writ: | sealed document from the Crown or a court of law giving a formal command. |
