Definition
A term of obscure and limited legal usage, found in older maritime and commercial law contexts. Based on available historical sources, "balary" appears in connection with the readiness of a ship to proceed on her voyage — specifically, the condition of a vessel positioned at or near port, whether in harbor or roadstead, in a state prepared for departure. The term is not in general modern legal use.
The surviving source material is fragmentary, and a complete or authoritative standalone definition cannot be reconstructed from the available record.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will most likely encounter "balary" in historical maritime law materials, particularly English commercial and admiralty cases from the mid-nineteenth century. The Bouvier's entry as preserved is incomplete — the text trails off mid-sentence — which is a known hazard when working with digitized or transcribed versions of older legal dictionaries. Researchers should treat any single-source definition of this term with caution and seek corroboration in the underlying case law.
The cases cited in the Bouvier's fragment (28 L.J. Ex. 169 and 24 L.J. Q.B. 340) concern the legal question of when a ship is considered to have "sailed" for purposes of contract, insurance, or bill of lading obligations — a question with significant commercial consequences. Whether a vessel anchored in a roadstead rather than a harbor had legally "sailed," and whether a master's partial departure from port satisfied departure conditions, were live disputes in this period. "Balary" may be a term of art within that context, but the fragment does not permit a confident determination of its precise doctrinal meaning.
If this term appears in a document under research, the recommended approach is to locate the full Bouvier's entry in a complete print edition, consult the cited Law Journal Exchequer and Queen's Bench reports directly, and cross-reference with contemporaneous maritime law treatises such as Arnould on Marine Insurance or Abbott on Shipping.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary is the sole source in the Law Mind corpus for this term, and the entry as available is fragmentary. The text references the concept of a ship being "at sea, ready to proceed upon her voyage" and distinguishes between a vessel remaining in harbor versus one anchored in a roadstead with no intention of returning. This distinction — between physical location and legal status of departure — recurs throughout mid-Victorian maritime law.
The fragment mentions a scenario where a master took a vessel out of port and left her "in the roads under easy railing," suggesting the entry was building toward a nuanced treatment of what constitutes legally sufficient departure. The truncation prevents full analysis.
No entry for "balary" appears in Black's Law Dictionary, Burrill's Law Dictionary, or other standard historical legal dictionaries commonly included in legal reference collections of the period, which suggests the term was either highly specialized, regional to English maritime practice, or sparsely used even in its own time.
Jurisdictional Note
The cited cases are English (Law Journal Exchequer and Law Journal Queen's Bench), suggesting this term's usage, if it had any currency at all, was rooted in English maritime law rather than American practice. American researchers working in admiralty should not assume the term carried equivalent meaning in U.S. courts.