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From: "Herb E. Ottey" <>
Subject: [PALANCAS] Legal definitions.....
Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 23:09:25 -0600


Hi Jim,
Here are definitions of some of the terms (some used especially
reference 'tax lists') from "Black's Law Dictionary", (4th Edition -
1953)..........

FREE TENURE: Tenure by free services; freehold tenure.

FREEDMAN: In Roman Law, one who was set free from a state of bondage;
an emancipated slave. The word is used in the same sense in the United
States, respecting negroes who were formerly slaves. (Fairfield v.
Lawson, 50 Conn. 513; Davenport v. Caldwell, 10 S.C. 333.)

FREEHOLDER: One having title to realty. Either of inheritance or for
life. A person who possesses a freehold estate. Statutory meaning not
infrequently differs from [English] Common Law meaning of the term.

FREEMAN: A person in the possession and enjoyment of all the civil and
political rights accorded to the people under a free government.
In the Roman law, it denoted one who was either born free or
emancipated, and was the opposite of "slave." In feudal law, it
designated an allodial proprietor, as distinguished from a vassal or
feudal tenant. (And so in Pennsylvania colonial law. Frey's Election
Case, 71 Pa. 308.)

FREEMAN'S ROLL: A list of persons admitted as burgesses or freeman for
the purposes of the rights reserved by the municipal corporation act, (5
& 6 Wm. IV, c. 76.) The term was used, in early colonial history, in
some of the American Colonies.

INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP: A contract in two parts, by which a
person, generally a minor, is bound to serve another in his trade, art,
or occupation for a stated time, on condition of being instructed in the
same.

INMATE: A person who lodges in the same house with another, occupying
different rooms, but using the same door for passing in and out of the
house.

SLAVE: A person who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who
has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under
the control of another.

Herb Ottey

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