Definition
An archaic spelling variant of APPURTENANCES. As used in older legal instruments, appertinances refers to the rights, privileges, easements, and secondary property interests that belong to and pass with a principal property. The term carries no independent legal meaning distinct from appurtenances; it is a scribal and orthographic variant encountered in historical deeds, conveyances, and pleadings.
Common Confusion
Appertinances and appurtenances are the same term. Researchers encountering "appertinances" in historical documents should treat it as functionally identical to appurtenances and not read any distinction into the variant spelling. The -ance/-ence instability in older legal orthography produced numerous such variants across property and conveyancing vocabulary.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research value of this entry is recognition: a researcher working through early deeds, colonial-era conveyances, or pre-standardization pleadings may encounter "appertinances" and need to confirm it is not a term of art distinct from "appurtenances." It is not. Index and full-text searches in historical corpus materials should account for both spellings, as well as related variants such as "appurtenances," "appurtinances," and "appertenances." Spelling standardization in legal documents was uneven well into the nineteenth century, and conveyancing formulas were particularly prone to copyist variation. Do not treat the variant spelling as evidence of a different legal concept or a different class of property interest.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary notes the term simply as "an old form of appurtenances," citing Cowell's legal dictionary. This reflects the standard treatment across historical legal dictionaries: the term is acknowledged only to redirect the reader, not to define an independent concept. No historical source attributes a meaning to appertinances that diverges from appurtenances. The brevity of Burrill's entry is itself instructive — by the mid-nineteenth century, the variant had receded far enough from practice that it warranted only a cross-reference.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See APPURTENANCES for the substantive doctrine, including what property interests qualify, how appurtenances pass in a conveyance, and the distinction between appurtenances and fixtures.