Definition
A seignorial right in French feudal law requiring a payment due to a lord upon every change of tenant in a heritable estate. Acapte functioned as a species of relief — a fee owed to the superior landholder whenever possession of the estate passed from one tenant to another. It was specific to the regions of Languedoc and Guyenne in southern France and attached exclusively to estates held under the contract of emphyteusis, a long-term heritable lease arrangement in which the tenant held the land perpetually or for a very long term in exchange for cultivation, improvement, and periodic dues to the lord.
The payment recognized the lord's continuing superior title over the land and compensated him for the alteration in the tenant relationship caused by succession, sale, or other transfer.
Common Confusion
Acapte is closely related to, but distinct from, the broader concept of relief. Relief was the general feudal term for a payment made by an heir to a lord upon inheriting a fief. Acapte was narrower in two respects: it was triggered by any change of tenant, not only inheritance, and it operated specifically within the emphyteutic tenure system of southern France rather than the broader feudal structure of northern France or England. Researchers conflating the two may misread the tenure obligations attached to a particular estate.
Why It Matters in Research
Acapte is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in sources dealing with southern French feudal custom — particularly the customary law of Languedoc and Guyenne — and in comparative feudal law surveys that trace the emphyteutic contract through Roman, civil law, and medieval French practice.
The term has no operative significance in English common law. It does not appear in standard English feudal doctrine and will not be found in Year Books, English plea rolls, or common law treatises. Researchers working in Anglo-American legal history who encounter acapte are almost certainly reading a comparative source, a civil law treatise, or a document with southern European provenance.
For corpus researchers, the key navigational point is the emphyteusis connection. Acapte cannot be understood in isolation from the emphyteutic tenure system. Any source discussing acapte is also a source about emphyteusis, and the two should be researched together. Historical sources on French feudal custom — including Guyot's institutional writings cited in both Black's and Burrill's — are the primary home for this term.
The term also illustrates a broader pattern in historical legal dictionaries: the inclusion of regional French and civil law feudal vocabulary to support comparative legal scholarship of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when American and English lawyers were actively engaging with civil law traditions. The presence of acapte in Black's and Burrill's reflects that scholarly moment rather than any practical application in American courts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both editions) and Burrill's Law Dictionary give nearly identical definitions, all tracing to Guyot's Institutions Féodales as the authoritative source. The uniformity across dictionaries reflects direct derivation from the same civil law reference rather than independent synthesis. Burrill adds the Latin form accapitum, which is useful for researchers tracing the term through Latin ecclesiastical or administrative records predating the French vernacular sources.
None of the historical dictionary entries expand beyond a brief identification of the term and its regional scope. They do not discuss the mechanics of how the payment was calculated, the procedure for its collection, or how it interacted with other seignorial dues. For substantive content beyond the bare definition, researchers must go to the primary French feudal sources, particularly Guyot.
Jurisdictional Note
Acapte is specific to the customary feudal law of Languedoc and Guyenne in southern France. It has no counterpart in English common law and no direct equivalent in the general civil law tradition, though it grew from the emphyteutic contract recognized in Roman and later civil law. It is not applicable in any American jurisdiction.