Definition
A Latin term from old English law with two related but distinct meanings:
1. Close or closed. A modifier applied to writs and grants to indicate they were sealed and directed to a specific person or purpose, as distinguished from open instruments. A writ was either clausum (close) or apertum (open). A grant made by literæ clausæ (close letters) was addressed to a named recipient and folded and sealed shut, rather than published openly for general notice.
2. A close; an enclosed parcel of land. In this sense, clausum denotes any piece of real property over which a person holds some exclusive possessory interest — not necessarily land enclosed by a physical fence or wall, but land legally bounded and set apart as one's own. The word appears most prominently in the phrase quare clausum fregit (literally, "wherefore he broke the close"), the operative language of the old common law writ in trespass actions for unlawful entry upon another's land.
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Common Confusion
CLAUSUM vs. CLOSE (the noun). Modern readers encountering "close" in old English legal sources should recognize it as the English rendering of clausum — a bounded parcel of land, not a synonym for "nearby" or a verb meaning to shut. The phrase quare clausum fregit is often abbreviated in older pleading records as qu. cl. fr. or q.c.f., and the abbreviated form can obscure its connection to the underlying Latin concept of the enclosed parcel.
CLAUSUM FREGIT vs. TRESPASS (general). Quare clausum fregit was the specific form of trespass action protecting possessory interests in land, distinct from trespass vi et armis (against the person) or trespass on the case. Researchers conflating these forms will misdirect their search in both historical pleading records and secondary sources.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter clausum primarily in two contexts: the history of writs and the history of trespass pleading.
In the writ context, the close/open distinction tracks a fundamental division in English chancery practice. Close writs and letters close were instruments of royal administration directed to specific officers or individuals; patent letters (literæ patentæ) were open instruments announcing rights or grants to the world. Confusing these categories when reading Bracton, Fleta, or Blackstone will distort understanding of how royal authority and private grants were communicated and recorded.
In the trespass context, quare clausum fregit is the ancestor of the modern tort action for trespass to land. Early case law and pleading manuals use the Latin phrase, the English phrase "breaking the close," and the abbreviations interchangeably. Researchers using full-text searches in historical corpus sources should search all variants. Bouvier notes that the declaration at common law did not need to describe the close specifically, but matters of justification — right of way, custom to enter, distress — had to be specially pleaded, which shapes where to look for substantive legal argument in historical records.
The meaning of clausum as "enclosed land" does not require physical enclosure. This is a trap in historical sources: land could be a legal close without visible fencing or hedging, and disputes about what constituted a close often turned on possessory right rather than physical boundary. Researchers reading 18th and 19th century American and English cases should not assume that "close" implies a physically enclosed space.
Jurisdictional carryover matters here: American courts adopted quare clausum fregit from English common law, and the phrase appears in early American reports well into the 19th century before giving way to simplified pleading.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on the two core meanings — closed/sealed (applied to writs and grants) and enclosed land (applied to the trespass action) — without significant disagreement. Burrill traces the term through Bracton and Fleta, grounding both meanings in medieval English law. Bouvier provides the most practical content, linking clausum to the substantive pleading rules governing quare clausum fregit actions. Anderson is the most useful for research navigation, giving the abbreviations actually found in records.
Black's (both editions) is minimal, defining the term as simply "close, closed up, sealed; enclosed as a parcel of land" without elaborating the writ or pleading context. Researchers relying on Black's alone will miss the connection to quare clausum fregit pleading practice and the open/close distinction in writ classification.
None of the historical dictionaries adequately flag the American reception of the term or explain when American courts abandoned the Latin writ language in favor of vernacular pleading forms. That transition is relevant to researchers working in 19th century American state court records.
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Jurisdictional Note
The quare clausum fregit form was standard in both English and American common law courts, but American adoption varied in timing and was displaced at different points by code pleading reforms following the Field Code (1848) and later equivalents. Researchers in pre-code American jurisdictions will find the Latin form; researchers in post-code practice will find "trespass to land" or equivalent modern terminology.
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