Definition
In feudal law, a bough of a tree was a symbolic object used to convey seisin of land. When a grantor delivered a bough — a branch cut from a tree — to a grantee, that physical act constituted livery of seisin, formally transferring possession of land to be held in chief (in capite) of the donor. The bough functioned not as a document or as land itself, but as a tangible token standing in for the land, completing the transfer under a legal system that required an observable, ceremonial act to effect conveyance of real property.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A bough is a main branch of a tree, particularly a large one.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "An arm or branch of a tree, especially a large arm or main branch."
The common meaning is purely botanical. The legal meaning is ceremonial and proprietary: the bough mattered not as a branch but as a symbolic stand-in for the land being transferred. A researcher encountering this term in a legal source should not read it as a description of vegetation but as a reference to a conveyancing instrument within the feudal seisin system.
---
Common Confusion
The bough of a tree as a seisin symbol is easily conflated with other objects used in livery of seisin ceremonies — clods of earth, twigs, rings, keys, and hasp of a door all served similar functions in different contexts. None of these objects was legally interchangeable; the choice of symbol could reflect the nature of the tenure or the custom of the locality. The bough specifically was associated with land held in capite, meaning tenure directly from the Crown or a superior lord. Do not confuse this historical usage with modern property law questions involving actual tree branches — overhanging boughs, encroaching limbs, and boundary trees are governed by entirely different doctrines with no feudal ceremonial dimension.
---
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in sources dealing with medieval English land law and the doctrine of livery of seisin. Researchers will encounter it primarily when working with feudal tenure materials, early English property treatises, or historical accounts of conveyancing practice before the Statute of Frauds (1677) gradually displaced ceremonial delivery with written instruments.
The principal research trap is anachronism: a reader trained in modern property law may pass over "bough of a tree" as a quaint flourish when it is in fact a precise legal term marking a completed conveyance. Conversely, modern disputes about tree branches and neighboring landowners have no connection to this feudal usage — searching a database for "bough" in property law contexts will surface both the archaic seisin symbol and contemporary vegetation encroachment cases, and these bodies of law are entirely unrelated.
The term also signals the broader feudal tenure context. If you encounter "bough of a tree" in a source, you are in materials dealing with capite tenure, seisin, and pre-modern conveyancing. The surrounding doctrine — escheat, homage, fealty, tenure conditions — will be equally archaic and requires care when connecting to modern property concepts.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary provide identical, minimal entries: a bough of a tree was a feudal symbol giving seisin of land to hold of the donor in capite. The first and second editions agree completely, offering no elaboration on the ceremony, the conditions under which a bough (as opposed to another symbol) was used, or the geographical extent of the practice.
Neither edition situates the term within the broader livery of seisin framework, nor do they note the variety of objects that could serve the same symbolic function. Researchers relying solely on Black's will have a correct but skeletal understanding. For fuller treatment, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and early property treatises covering seisin provide the contextual depth that the dictionary entries omit. The feudal conveyancing system to which this term belongs was largely academic by the time Black's first edition appeared in 1891; the brevity of the entry reflects that the term had no live legal application by then.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia: Trees and Vegetation — Boundary Trees, Overhanging Branches, Root Encroachment (property_148). Note: this entry covers modern vegetation law, not feudal seisin. The connection is terminological only; researchers should consult it to understand what "bough of a tree" does not mean in contemporary property disputes.
---