Definition
In historical English law, *chaser* is a Law French verb meaning to chase, hunt, drive, or compel. It appears in the Year Books and early reports not as a noun identifying a person, but as an action verb describing the physical driving of animals or, in procedural contexts, the compelling of a party to plead, answer, or acknowledge. The term does not carry a technical doctrinal definition in the modern common law sense; it is a linguistic artifact of Law French pleading and appears almost exclusively in archaic source materials.
Two distinct uses appear in the historical record:
1. CHASER IN THE CONTEXT OF HUNTING AND CHASE: To chase or hunt beasts, as in *chase et rechase les bestes* — the chasing and rechasing of animals. This connects to the law of chase, the common law right to hunt over defined territory, and disputes over the taking or disturbance of game.
2. CHASER IN THE CONTEXT OF COMPULSION TO PLEAD: To drive or compel a party in a legal proceeding. *Chase de pleder* (driven to plead), *chase à repondre* (driven to answer), and *chase à conustre* (driven to acknowledge) appear in Dyer and the Year Books as formulaic descriptions of procedural compulsion — the forcing of a defendant or party into a responsive legal act.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A chaser is a person who engraves or embosses metal; a tool for cleaning or repairing screw threads; or a chase gun mounted at the bow or stern of a ship.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who chases; a pursuer, driver, or hunter. Also a chase gun, particularly a bow chaser or stern chaser on a vessel.
The common meaning tracks closely to the literal sense of pursuit and hunting, which overlaps partially with the first legal usage above. The gap lies in the second, procedural meaning: no ordinary English speaker would understand "chaser" to mean the compulsion of a party to respond in court. That usage is purely a Law French legal artifact with no common English equivalent and no survival in modern legal parlance.
Common Confusion
Researchers may conflate *chaser* as a verb of procedural compulsion with *chase* as a property right. They are related in origin but distinct in legal operation. The right of chase is a substantive property concept; *chaser à pleder* and its variants are procedural descriptions appearing in Year Book pleading formulas. Conflating the two misreads the source. Additionally, the Law French *chaser* should not be read as a noun (a person who chases) when encountered in Year Book contexts — in those sources it typically functions as a verb.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in Year Books, early English reports, or Burrill's Law Dictionary will encounter *chaser* in two distinct registers, and misreading the register produces misreading of the source. The procedural phrases — *chase de pleder*, *chase à repondre*, *chase à conustre* — are formulaic expressions of compulsion to act in court, not descriptions of hunting activity. Recognizing the verb form is essential to accurate translation and interpretation.
The term has no modern legal survival as a standalone doctrinal concept. Its research value is entirely historical and linguistic: it appears as evidence of Law French pleading conventions and early common law procedural vocabulary. Researchers tracing the history of the right of chase or the law of hunting will encounter the hunting sense; researchers tracing early procedural history of pleading obligations will encounter the compulsion sense.
Because *chaser* does not appear in modern legal dictionaries, Burrill is the primary dictionary source. Researchers should note that Burrill's entries for Law French terms are often more complete than his treatment of common law doctrines — the citations to Dyer and the Year Books here are representative of his method and are reliable leads for primary source verification.
There is no meaningful jurisdictional variation to note; the term is obsolete in all modern common law jurisdictions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is brief but structurally useful: it identifies both the hunting sense and the procedural compulsion sense, supplies Year Book and Dyer citations for each, and presents the Law French formulas in their original form. This is one of Burrill's strengths — his attention to Law French vocabulary that other nineteenth-century dictionaries pass over entirely.
No other dictionary on the Law Mind shelf treats *chaser* as a distinct legal entry. Bouvier does not carry the term. The absence reflects the word's status as a linguistic remnant rather than a living legal concept even by the mid-nineteenth century. Burrill's inclusion is valuable precisely because it preserves vocabulary that was already becoming opaque to practitioners of his era.
The Dyer citations (*Dyer, 6 b.* and *33 b.*) refer to reports of Sir James Dyer, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, whose reports cover the mid-sixteenth century and are a primary source for Law French pleading formulas in transition toward English. Researchers using the French edition of Dyer (as Burrill specifies) should note that English editions may render these passages differently.