Definition
Latin plural of caput (head). In legal usage, capita means persons individually considered — each person counted as a single unit, without reference to their position in a family line or their relationship to others in the group. The term appears almost exclusively as a component of two key phrases:
1. Per capita — "by heads" or "by the poll." A method of distributing property, an estate, or a benefit equally among all qualifying individuals, each receiving an equal share regardless of which branch of a family they come from or how many relatives they have in common with others.
2. In capita — a variant form used in older legal writing to describe the same individual-unit method of taking or holding, as opposed to taking through a line of descent.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A person; an individual human being.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The plural of caput; heads.
The ordinary meaning (persons, heads) is not far from the legal meaning, but the legal significance is entirely relational. In law, capita matters not as a count of people in the abstract but as a method of distribution — it answers the question of how shares are apportioned among multiple claimants. A researcher who reads "per capita" as simply meaning "per person" without grasping the contrast with per stirpes will misread the operative legal mechanism entirely.
Common Confusion
Capita vs. Stirpes: These terms define opposite methods of inheritance or distribution. Per capita distributes equally among all individuals at the same level, treating each person as an independent unit. Per stirpes distributes by family branch or stock, so that the descendants of a deceased heir collectively take only the share their ancestor would have received. Historical sources, particularly in probate and civil law contexts, consistently define capita against stirpes — understanding one requires understanding the other.
Why It Matters in Research
Capita almost never appears alone in primary sources. It functions as a term of art embedded in the phrases per capita and in capita, and researchers should search accordingly. Its meaning is defined negatively — to know what per capita distribution means, you must know what it excludes, which is per stirpes distribution.
In probate and succession research, the distinction is operationally significant. Wills and intestacy statutes drafted before the twentieth century often used Latin phrases without definition, assuming the reader knew the civil law framework. Researchers working with antebellum American probate records, English chancery materials, or early state intestacy statutes must be alert to which method is specified, because the resulting distribution of an estate can differ dramatically depending on family structure.
The civil law roots of the term (Justinian's Institutes, Book 3) mean that capita appears in Roman law sources, canon law materials, and civil law jurisdictions with a longer pedigree than in common law sources. English and American equity courts absorbed the distinction through inheritance practice, not through direct reception of Roman law, so the terminology sometimes appears inconsistently in early common law sources.
Anderson's Dictionary introduces a distinct usage — capital in the corporate sense — that is unrelated to the succession-law meaning of capita. Researchers should not conflate entries organized under "Caput/Capita" in historical dictionaries that slide between these meanings without clear separation.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2d editions) and Burrill's are in close agreement, drawing on Spelman for the "heads and entire bodies" formulation and grounding the succession-law meaning in Justinian's Institutes (3.1.6). Both correctly identify the civil law origin of the per capita / per stirpes distinction. Burrill adds additional Novella citations (Nov. 118, c. 3) useful for researchers tracing Roman law sources directly.
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is a bare cross-reference to Per Capita, which reflects the practical reality that capita standing alone is rarely encountered in American legal practice — the phrase per capita carries the weight.
Anderson's Dictionary departs from the succession-law focus by pivoting to capital stock and corporate finance, treating "capita" as a lead-in to a discussion of corporate capitalization. This is a different legal universe. Researchers should treat Anderson's entry as germane to corporate law research only and not as a guide to the succession-law meaning.
What the historical dictionaries collectively omit: none of them address the modern statutory displacement of Latin terminology. Contemporary intestacy statutes in most U.S. jurisdictions have replaced per capita and per stirpes with defined statutory terms (such as "per capita at each generation"), which operate similarly but are not identical to the traditional civil law categories. A researcher moving between historical sources and modern statutes must bridge this terminological gap independently.
Jurisdictional Note
The civil law meaning of per capita distribution is functionally universal in American succession law, but modern statutes vary in how they define it. Several states have adopted the Uniform Probate Code's "per capita at each generation" standard, which modifies the traditional per capita rule in multi-generational distributions. Researchers working on contemporary estates should not assume that historical per capita doctrine maps directly onto current statutory language without checking the applicable state's intestacy provisions.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Inheritance and Succession Law; Per Stirpes and Per Capita Distribution.