Definition
The act of measuring out, assigning, or apportioning something according to fixed quantities, values, limits, or proportions. Admeasurement denotes both the process of ascertaining a party's rightful share of a resource or right and the legal mechanism — historically a writ — for correcting an overreach where one party has taken more than their entitled portion.
In historical English common law, admeasurement operated primarily through two recognized writs:
1. Admeasurement of dower: A remedy available to the heir upon reaching majority to correct an excessive assignment of dower made during the heir's minority. If a widow had been assigned — or had taken — more land as dower than she was legally entitled to, this writ lay to compel a proper apportionment.
2. Admeasurement of pasture: A writ available where a commoner claimed or used more than their rightful share of common pasture, compelling a sheriff-supervised reallocation to restore each party's lawful portion.
Both forms share the same core function: judicial or official correction of a mismeasured or usurped share of a right or property.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Apportionment" or "measurement, the act of measuring."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not independently defined; treated as a technical term derived from "admeasure," meaning to apportion or assign by measure.
The gap here is modest but real. In ordinary English, "measurement" suggests a neutral act of gauging dimensions. In law, admeasurement carries a remedial dimension — it is not merely the act of measuring but the official correction of an improper taking, typically through a formal writ compelling reapportionment. The legal term implies a wrong to be rectified, not simply a quantity to be determined.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Admeasurement of Dower: The more frequently litigated form. Arose where a widow held excess land as dower, often because assignment occurred during an heir's minority when oversight was limited. Upon the heir's majority, this writ allowed reallocation to the legally correct portion.
Admeasurement of Pasture: Lay against a commoner who overstocked or overclaimed common pasture beyond their rightful share. The sheriff would supervise a reallocation among all commoners entitled to the common.
Why It Matters in Research
Admeasurement is an archaic term unlikely to appear in modern American case law except in historical analysis or property disputes with deep common-law roots. Researchers encountering it in early English reports, colonial-era land records, or nineteenth-century American treatises should understand it as a writ-based remedy tied to specific factual patterns — dower excess and common-pasture overage — rather than a general-purpose apportionment concept.
Key research traps:
First, the term appears in both procedural and substantive contexts in historical sources. "Admeasurement" may refer to the underlying right being quantified or to the writ itself; context determines which is meant.
Second, admeasurement of dower has a temporal trigger — the heir's majority — that is easy to miss when reading abbreviated historical descriptions. Sources that omit this element (Anderson's, for instance, gives only a bare definition) obscure an important limitation on when the writ was available.
Third, researchers using historical digests should note that admeasurement entries are sometimes split between "dower" and "pasture" headnotes, or folded under broader "writs" categories, making exhaustive searching require multiple access points.
Fourth, because admeasurement of dower predates and operates differently from modern dower statutes (and dower has been abolished in most U.S. jurisdictions), the term's practical significance in American law is almost entirely historical. Appearances in nineteenth-century American case law typically signal a court applying inherited English common-law doctrine to colonial-era land grants or pre-abolition dower claims.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement on the core definition. Black's (both editions), Burrill, Anderson, and Rapalje & Lawrence all converge on "measuring out" and "apportionment according to fixed limits" as the essential meaning, and all identify the writ character of the term.
Burrill provides the most technically precise treatment, noting the Latin roots (admensuratio, amensuratio) and explicitly grounding the writ in common-law doctrine against usurpation of any right or privilege — broader framing than the other sources, which emphasize dower and pasture as the primary applications.
Rapalje & Lawrence adds procedural texture absent from the other entries, noting that in dower admeasurement the sheriff conducted the actual apportionment — a detail significant for understanding how the remedy operated in practice.
Anderson's entry is the sparest of the group, offering only "ascertainment; apportionment" and a one-line description of the writ. Useful for quick identification but inadequate for understanding the temporal or procedural conditions governing the remedy.
None of the historical sources addresses American statutory developments or the gradual displacement of these writs as dower rights were reformed or abolished. Researchers should not assume that the historical dictionary treatments reflect nineteenth-century American practice without independent verification.
Jurisdictional Note
Admeasurement of dower is effectively a dead letter in most U.S. jurisdictions, where dower has been abolished by statute or superseded by elective-share regimes. Admeasurement of pasture retains theoretical relevance in jurisdictions with surviving common-pasture or grazing-right arrangements, though modern disputes in those areas are typically governed by statutory or regulatory frameworks rather than the ancient writ.