CLOERE

3 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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CLOEREAuthored
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Definition
An archaic legal term for a gaol, prison, or dungeon. CLOERE denotes a place of physical confinement — a secured enclosure used to detain persons by legal authority. The term appears in older English legal texts and records as a variant spelling within the family of words relating to imprisonment and custodial enclosure.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No current entry. The word is not in active use in modern English. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): No entry. The term had already passed out of general use by the nineteenth century. The word shares its root concept with the modern English verb "to close" and the noun "closure," both carrying the sense of shutting or enclosing. The legal term, however, is narrower and more specific: it does not mean merely a closed space but a formally constituted place of legal detention. A researcher encountering CLOERE in an old record should not read it as a general descriptor of any enclosed place — it signals a gaol or prison in the technical sense.
Common Confusion
CLOERE is easily confused with CLOSE, a term with multiple distinct legal meanings. In historical practice, CLOSE (adjective) referred to writs or letters that were sealed — so-called close writs, as opposed to open or patent instruments. CLOSE (verb) meant to finish, terminate, or wind up a matter — closing an account, an estate, or public tax books. None of these meanings overlap with CLOERE as a place of confinement. The visual and phonetic similarity between CLOERE and CLOSE in manuscript sources creates a real transcription hazard: a researcher reading an older hand may misread one for the other and arrive at an entirely wrong interpretation of a document.
Why It Matters in Research
CLOERE is primarily a paleographic and philological concern rather than a living legal concept. Its research significance lies almost entirely in the reading of early English legal records — plea rolls, gaol delivery records, and related medieval and early modern documents — where variant spellings of common legal terms were routine. Several points of navigational importance: Spelling variation is extreme. Medieval and early modern legal clerks spelled by sound and convention, not by fixed orthography. CLOERE may appear alongside CLORE, CLAURE, GAOLER, GAOLER, and related forms in the same corpus of documents. Treat it as one node in a spelling cluster, not an isolated term. The adjacency to CLOSE in the dictionaries is not accidental. Both Black's editions place CLOERE immediately before entries for CLOSE, and the structural proximity in dictionary arrangement reflects the phonetic and etymological proximity in historical usage. Researchers working through Black's in sequence should be alert to this clustering. This term does not appear in modern statutory or case law. Searching contemporary legal databases for CLOERE will return nothing useful. Its domain is entirely in historical legal sources, and any modern appearance is likely a transcription artifact or antiquarian reference. Corpus researchers using Law Mind's historical collections should flag CLOERE as a gaol-family term and ensure that any full-text search strategy for historical imprisonment records includes this spelling variant alongside the more common forms.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary define CLOERE identically: a gaol, prison, or dungeon. There is no divergence between the two editions on substance. Neither edition provides additional context, etymology, or illustrative authority — the entries are bare definitions, suggesting the editors treated CLOERE as a known variant requiring identification but not extended treatment. Neither edition connects CLOERE to specific historical statutes or cases, which is consistent with its character as a spelling variant rather than a term of art with independent doctrinal content. The 2nd edition uses the space immediately following the CLOERE entry to develop the multiple meanings of CLOSE at length, complete with case citations — a contrast that underscores how thin the CLOERE entry itself is. What both historical dictionaries miss: neither flags the transcription risk created by the proximity to CLOSE, and neither situates CLOERE within the broader family of gaol-related terminology. Researchers should not expect Black's to do that work for them here.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Imprisonment; Gaol Delivery; Close Writs.
Related Terms
GAOL — the standard English legal term for a place of confinement; functional equivalent of CLOERE PRISON — the modern term in continuous use CLOSE (adj.) — sealed writ; distinct meaningsimilar spellingcommon source of confusion CLOSE (v.) — to terminate or wind up; distinct meaning CLOSE WRIT — a writ directed to a specific officer under sealas opposed to letters patent CUSTODY — the broader legal concept of lawful detention COMMITMENT — the formal act of sending a person to prison GAOL DELIVERY — the historical proceeding for clearing a gaol of prisoners awaiting trial
CLOEREmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
A gaol; a prison or dungeon. CLOSE, adj. In practice. Close or sealed up. A term applied to writs and letters, as L M
CLOEREmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
A gaol; a prison or dungeon. CLOSE, v. To finish, terminate, complete, wind up; as, to “close” an account, a bargain, an estate, or public books, such as tax books. Patton v. Ash, 7 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 116; Coleman v. Garrigues, 18 Barb. (N. Y.) 67; Clark v. New York, 13 N. Y. St. Rep. 292; Bilafsky v. Abraham, 183 Mass. 401, . 67 N. E. 818. To shut up, so as to prevent entrance or access by any person; as in statutes requiring saloons to be “closed” at certain ties, which further implies an entire suspension of business. Kurtz v. People, 338 Mich. 282; People v. James, 100 Mich. 522, 59 N. W. 236; Harvey v. State, 65 Ga. 570; People ‘y. Cummerford, 58 Mich. 328, 25 N. W. 203. CLOSE, n. A portion of land, as a field, inclosed, as by a hedge, fence, or other visible inclosure. 3 Bl. Comm. 209. The interest of a person fn any particular piece of ground, whether actually inclosed or not. Locklin v. Casler, 50 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 44; Meade v. Watson, 67 Cal. 591, 8 Pac. 311; Matthews vy. Treat, 75 Me. 600; Wright v. Bennett, 4 Ill. 258; Blakeney v. Blakeney, 6 Port. (Ala.) 115, 30 Am. Dec. 574. The noun ‘close,’ in its legal sense, imports a portion of land irclosed, but not necessarily inclosed by actual or visible barriers. The invisible, ideal boundary, founded on limit of title, which surrounds every man’s land, constitutes it his close, irrespective of walls, fences, ditches, or the like. In practice. The word means termination; winding up. Thus the close of the pleadings is where the pleadings are finished, 4. e., when issue has been joined. CLOSE, adj. In practice. Closed or sealed up. A term applied to writs and letters,

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