Definition
An archaic term from English forest law denoting the act of carrying unlawfully taken game — typically a deer — on one's back. A person discovered in this condition was said to be taken backbear, meaning caught in the act of physically transporting poached venison or other forest game away from the kill site. Backbear constituted one of the recognized circumstances of manifest, hand-in-act capture that authorized immediate arrest of a forest offender without further process.
The term is closely associated with the concept of being taken with the mainour (also spelled "manner") — the doctrine that an offender apprehended in the immediate physical act of wrongdoing, or in possession of the stolen or poached thing itself, could be seized on the spot. Being found with a deer carcass on one's back was among the clearest possible instances of this condition.
---
Common Confusion
BACKBEAR and BACKBEREND are closely related but technically distinct. Backbear is specific to forest law and the poaching of vert and venison. Backberend is the older Saxon-derived term with broader application: it described any thief apprehended carrying stolen goods on their person or back, not merely a forest offender. Bouvier explicitly equates the two as functionally the same concept operating in different legal contexts. Researchers encountering either term in historical sources should check which legal regime — forest law or general theft law — is under discussion before treating the terms as interchangeable.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Backbear appears almost exclusively in sources addressing medieval and early modern English forest law, a now-extinct regulatory system governing royal forests. Researchers will not encounter this term in modern case law or statutes. Its relevance is purely historical: it surfaces in treatises, forest court records, and glossaries derived from writers like Manwood (whose work on forest law remains the principal authority cited by all major historical dictionaries) and Cowell.
The primary research trap is mistaking backbear for a general common-law concept. It is not. It belongs to the specialized jurisdiction of forest courts — the Court of Attachments, the Court of Regarders, and ultimately the Justice Seat — bodies with no modern successors. A researcher working with forest eyre records, swanimote proceedings, or related administrative documents will find backbear as a term of pleading or presentment, describing the factual basis for arrest rather than a charged offense in the modern sense.
The connection to mainour is the key navigational link. Backbear is one species of mainour capture; understanding mainour unlocks the broader doctrine of which backbear is a part. The two terms appear together consistently across historical dictionary sources and should be researched in tandem.
Backberend, the Saxon cognate, appears in sources dealing with Anglo-Saxon and early Norman theft law. If a source uses backberend rather than backbear, it is likely addressing pre-Conquest or early post-Conquest legal custom rather than the developed royal forest law of the later medieval period.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's are in near-complete agreement on the core definition, all tracing the term to Manwood and Cowell. The uniformity reflects that all four sources are ultimately drawing from the same narrow stream of forest law authority rather than independent verification.
Bouvier adds the most analytical value by explicitly distinguishing backbear from backberend and noting that the latter extended to theft generally. This distinction is absent from both editions of Black's and from Burrill, making Bouvier the more precise source for researchers needing to differentiate between the forest law term and its Saxon antecedent.
None of the historical dictionaries provide procedural depth — they identify backbear as a ground for arrest but do not explain what followed in forest court proceedings. Manwood's own treatise, *A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forrest* (various editions from 1598 onward), remains the primary source for procedural context that the dictionaries omit.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Backbear is exclusively an English law term with no American legal history. It did not travel to colonial American jurisprudence. Researchers in U.S. legal history will not encounter it except in imported English treatises or comparative legal scholarship.
---