Definition
An archaic English legal term meaning grain, and particularly corn. The word appears in old English law as a substantive referring to agricultural produce of the grain variety. It has no modern legal usage and survives only in historical sources, where it may appear in early land grants, manorial records, rent provisions, and agricultural tenure documents.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "blee," an archaic or dialectal English word meaning complexion, hue, or color of the face.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; "blee" appears in older English as a poetic or dialectal term for complexion or likeness.
The legal meaning of BLEES is entirely unrelated to the common English meaning. In legal sources, the term refers to grain or corn — a commodity with economic and tenurial significance — while in general English usage the word root points toward physical appearance or complexion. A researcher encountering "blees" in a historical legal document should not apply the ordinary English sense of the word.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in English manorial records, feudal tenure documents, or early agricultural lease instruments may encounter BLEES as a term of quantity or obligation — for example, in rent specifications, tithe records, or conveyance recitals that enumerate agricultural produce owed as part of a tenure arrangement. The term belongs to the same documentary environment as words like "messuage," "virgate," and "gavel," and its meaning must be understood against that background rather than from modern dictionaries.
The two Black's Law Dictionary editions agree verbatim on the definition, suggesting the compilers were drawing from the same older English legal sources, likely glossaries of manorial and agricultural law. Neither edition provides a date range for the term's active legal use, and neither links it to a specific statute or case, making it difficult to pin down with precision. Researchers should treat it as a medieval or early modern term unlikely to appear in sources after the seventeenth century.
Because the term is sandwiched in both editions between entries for BLENCH and BLENCH HOLDING, it may appear in documents concerning tenure by blench (a nominal or token rent tenure), where grain or corn could serve as the rent commodity. That adjacency in the dictionary is a useful navigational clue.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary provide identical, minimal definitions: "grain; particularly corn." Neither edition elaborates on statutory origin, regional usage, or the specific documentary contexts in which the term appears. The brevity of both entries suggests that BLEES was already a fossil term by the time Black's first compiled its dictionary, retained for completeness rather than active utility. No divergence exists between the two editions — the second edition preserves the first without amendment or expansion.
Researchers should note that historical legal dictionaries of this period (late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) frequently carried forward terms from Cowell's Interpreter, Spelman's Glossary, and similar early modern legal lexicons without independent verification. BLEES likely traces to one of those intermediary sources. Where precision is required, consulting Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum or Cowell's The Interpreter directly may yield additional context.