ASSEWIARE

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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ASSEWIAREAuthored
The Law Mind • 647 words
Definition
An obsolete Latin term from old legal records meaning to draw out or drain water from marshy or swampy ground. The term describes a drainage or water-management action taken with respect to wetlands — specifically the physical act of channeling water away from marsh grounds, typically as part of land reclamation or agricultural improvement. It carries no modern legal currency and appears exclusively in historical records and glossaries.
Common Confusion
ASSEWIARE is occasionally printed in close proximity to ASSIGN and its variants in historical dictionaries, owing to alphabetical arrangement. Researchers encountering either term in a manuscript or early printed source should take care not to conflate them. ASSIGN is a foundational conveyancing term denoting the transfer of property or an interest therein; ASSEWIARE denotes a physical act relating to land drainage. The two concepts are entirely unrelated in law.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will surface only in the most archaic strata of the Law Mind corpus — medieval and early modern English land records, monastic grants, fenland improvement documents, and antiquarian glossaries. Researchers working with records relating to fen drainage in England, particularly in counties such as Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, or the Somerset Levels, may encounter the term in administrative or conveyancing instruments describing conditions placed on landholders or obligations attached to land tenure. The primary research trap is typographical and contextual: because historical dictionaries place ASSEWIARE immediately before ASSIGN and its many variants, a researcher scanning a page may misread or misattribute surrounding text. Both Black's editions and Burrill's treat the term as a one-line gloss, citing Cowell's Interpreter as the authority. The brevity of those entries signals that even the historical lexicographers regarded this as a term of record rather than of active legal doctrine. No modern legal significance attaches to ASSEWIARE. Its value to a researcher is diagnostic — its appearance in a document is a strong indicator of a pre-modern English land record, likely touching on drainage rights, fen improvement, or agricultural tenure obligations.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the substance: ASSEWIARE means to draw or drain water from marsh grounds, and all trace the definition to John Cowell's Interpreter (1607), with Burrill also citing Thomas Blount's Nomo-Lexicon (1670). The entries are strikingly uniform and brief, suggesting that each subsequent compiler borrowed directly from Cowell without independent investigation of primary records. None of the dictionaries provide an example document, a case, or any procedural context in which the term was employed. Burrill's entry is the most informative in one respect: it situates ASSEWIARE within a cluster of related archaic terms (ASSEZ, ASSETZ, and their variants), which collectively illustrate the transitional character of medieval Anglo-Latin legal vocabulary — a mixture of Latin, Law French, and early English forms that characterized English legal writing from roughly the twelfth through sixteenth centuries. Black's 2nd edition adds nothing to the 1st edition entry beyond minor formatting adjustments. The historical record effectively bottoms out at Cowell, making independent verification of the term's usage in primary sources a matter for specialized archival research rather than legal dictionary consultation.
Jurisdictional Note
Exclusively English in origin and application. No equivalent term appears in Scottish, Irish, or American legal traditions. Researchers working in continental European records should not expect cognate usage.
Related Terms
ASSIGN — Transfer of property or an interest; the adjacent term in historical dictionariesunrelated in meaning. DRAINAGE RIGHTS — The modern legal concept most functionally analogous to the activity described by ASSEWIARE. RECLAMATION — Land improvement through water removal; a broader concept encompassing the activity ASSEWIARE describes. COWELL'S INTERPRETER — The primary historical authority cited for this term; an essential reference for researchers working with early modern English legal vocabulary. FEN DRAINAGE — Historical context in which ASSEWIARE is most likely to appear in primary records.
ASSEWIAREmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
from marsh grounds. To draw or drain water Cowell. ASSIGN, v. In conveyancing. To make or set over to another; to transfer; as to as- sign property, or some interest therein. Cow- ell; 2 Bl. Comm. 326. In practice. To appoint, allot, select, or designate for a particular purpose, or duty. Tidd, 686. C
ASSEWIAREmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
L. Lat. In old records. To draw or drain out water from marshy grounds. Cowell. Blount. ASSEZ, Aseez, Assetz, Assietz, Asses. L. Fr. Enough; sufficient. Kelham. Assez affer; enough to do. Id. See Asses.
ASSEWIAREmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
To draw or drain water from marsh grounds. Cowell. ASSIGN, v. In conveyancing. To make or set over to another; to transfer; as to assign property, or some interest therein. Cowell: 2 Bl. Comm. 326; Bump v. Van Orsdale, 11 Barb. (N. Y.) 688; Hoag v. Mendenhall, 19 Minn. 336 (Gil. 289). In practice. To appoint, allot, select, or designate for a particular purpose, or duty. Thus, in England, justices are said to be “assigned to take the assises,” ‘‘assigned to hold pleas,” “assigned to make gaol delivery,” “assigned to keep the peace,” etc. St. Westm. 2, c. 30; Reg. Orig. 68, 69; 3 BI. Comm. 58, 59, 353; 1 Bl Comm. 351. To transfer persons, as a sheriff is said to assign prisoners In his custody. To point at. or point out: to set forth, or specify; to mark out or designate; as to assign crrors on a writ of error; to assign breaches of a covenant. 2 Tidd, Pr. 1168; 1 Tidd. 686.

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