Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning to claim. Used in early English legal practice to express the act of asserting a right or entitlement to property, an inheritance, or other legal interest. The term appears in the context of formal pleading and procedural assertion of claims, particularly in feudal and property law contexts.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval English legal records, Year Books, or early common law pleading materials may encounter this term where modern sources would use "claim" or "assert title." Because cleymer is Law French in origin, it will appear in its most natural habitat in pre-sixteenth-century records before the gradual displacement of Law French from English legal practice. Researchers should be alert to variant spellings — Law French terms were notoriously unstable in orthography across manuscripts and early printed sources. The term may appear as cleimer, claimer, or in other phonetic approximations depending on the scribe or printer. Do not assume a single canonical spelling when searching manuscript indexes or digitized legal records. The connection to the broader family of claim-related terminology in Law French (clamare, clamer, and related forms) means that parallel terms in Latin records may perform the same function under different lexical dress. Researchers encountering cleymer in a pleading context should also consult surrounding procedural language to determine whether it signals a formal writ-based claim or a less structured assertion, as the procedural weight of the term may vary by context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary historical source identifying this term, defining it curtly as Law French for "to claim" and cross-referencing it under the heading Assaver. Burrill's treatment is characteristically economical — the entry does no more than supply the translation and note the linguistic register. This brevity is typical of Burrill's handling of Law French vocabulary, which he catalogs but rarely contextualizes in depth. No elaboration on procedural usage or historical frequency is offered. Researchers should not read Burrill's silence on subtleties as evidence that the term lacked nuance in practice; rather, Burrill's dictionary functions here as a finding aid rather than a jurisprudential analysis. Older English law dictionaries such as Cowell's Interpreter and Rastell's Termes de la Ley may provide additional Law French context for claim-related vocabulary of this period, though cleymer specifically may not appear by name in those sources.