Definition
"Ample and full a manner as it has" is a phrase of covenant construction appearing in older deed and conveyance instruments. It is not a standalone legal term but a clause fragment drawn from boilerplate covenant language, typically reading in full as something like "in as ample and full a manner as it has been assigned to him" or similar. The phrase signals the scope of rights being transferred or confirmed: the grantor or covenantor warrants that the grantee receives title or rights to the same extent, and with the same completeness, as those rights were previously held or conveyed. The phrase functions as a sweep provision, ensuring no diminution of the interest between successive holders.
In practice, the clause appears most often in:
1. Covenants of warranty in deeds, where the grantor promises the grantee will hold title as fully as any prior holder did.
2. Assignments of contractual rights, confirming the assignee steps into the assignor's shoes without reduction.
The phrase is archaic and rarely appears in modern drafting, having been displaced by more precise warranty and assignment language.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Ample" means more than enough, abundant; "full" means complete, entire, with nothing missing.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Ample" — large in dimensions, extent, or capacity; generous in measure; "full" — containing all that is normal or possible.
The gap between common and legal meaning is modest but important. In ordinary speech, the pairing of "ample" and "full" is loosely intensifying — very complete, more than enough. In covenant construction, courts read the phrase with technical precision: together the words establish a legal standard of identity and completeness of title or right, not mere abundance. The phrase is a term of art signaling that the conveyance is intended to be co-extensive with the prior holding, not merely adequate or generous.
Common Confusion
This phrase is sometimes misread as a warranty of quantity (that the estate conveyed is large or sufficient) rather than a warranty of equivalence (that the estate conveyed is the same in scope as what the grantor held). The confusion matters in title disputes: a grantor who uses this language is promising identity of right, not merely sufficiency of conveyance.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this phrase in historical deeds, assignments, or covenant instruments — particularly from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other early American jurisdictions — should treat it as a scope-of-title clause rather than a mere rhetorical flourish. Courts construing such covenants asked whether the assignee or grantee received the same bundle of rights that the assignor held, and this phrase was the mechanism that triggered that inquiry.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry cross-references two distinct applications: covenant construction in Massachusetts (14 Mass. 389) and the "ample estate" standard in Pennsylvania (2 Yeates 508). These are related but not identical doctrines. The Massachusetts reference concerns what rights flow through an assignment by virtue of this language; the Pennsylvania reference involves whether an estate is sufficiently ample to satisfy debts after a voluntary conveyance to children — a fraudulent conveyance inquiry. Researchers should not conflate these two lines of authority simply because both use the word "ample."
In historical corpus searching, this phrase will rarely appear as a discrete index headword. It is more likely encountered within the body of deed forms, precedent books, and covenant annotations. Searching for "ample estate" as a separate concept (particularly in Pennsylvania equity cases involving voluntary conveyances) will surface a distinct and useful body of case law on fraudulent conveyance and creditor rights.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the sole historical dictionary source here, and the entry is notably compressed — a fragment rather than a full treatment. The dictionary links the phrase to 14 Mass. 389 in the covenant context and separately notes "ample estate" in the Pennsylvania fraudulent conveyance context at 2 Yeates 508. No other major historical dictionaries (Bouvier, Black's early editions) develop this phrase as a standalone entry, which reflects its nature as clause language rather than an independent legal concept. The historical sources thus provide citation anchors but no doctrinal analysis; researchers must proceed directly to the case law for substantive guidance.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase appears in early American case law predominantly in New England and mid-Atlantic jurisdictions, reflecting colonial and early republican deed-drafting conventions. Modern courts across all U.S. jurisdictions are unlikely to encounter this exact language in contemporary instruments, but the interpretive question it raises — whether an assignment or conveyance is co-extensive with the original grant — remains universally relevant.