Definition
A term appearing in old deeds and conveyances to describe the right of common — that is, the right of one or more persons to use land belonging to another, or to land held in common by a community, typically for purposes such as pasturing animals, gathering wood, or other shared uses. In historical property law, commonage is functionally synonymous with the right of common and is encountered most often as a descriptive term in older instruments rather than as a technical term of art with independent doctrinal weight. Its legal significance derives entirely from the broader law of common, of which it is essentially a synonym or shorthand.
The term also appears, less frequently, in descriptions of land status: land said to be "in commonage" is land held or enjoyed collectively rather than by a single private owner.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The condition of land held in common; the right to pasture animals on common land; shared land or a commons.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The right of pasturing on a common; the right of using anything in common with others.
The gap between common and legal meaning here is narrow but worth noting. In ordinary English, commonage tends to describe both the physical land and the right of use somewhat interchangeably. In legal instruments, the term functions more precisely as a descriptor of the right — not the land itself — and its legal content depends entirely on the specific type of common appurtenant, in gross, or otherwise specified in the underlying grant or deed. A researcher relying on the common-language sense may overread the term as describing land ownership when it describes only a use right.
Why It Matters in Research
Commonage is primarily a finding aid rather than a substantive legal concept in its own right. When encountered in a historical deed, conveyance, or title abstract, it signals that the instrument is granting, reserving, or describing a right of common, and the researcher's next step is always to identify which type of common is involved.
Several navigational traps apply. First, the term is characteristic of older English and early American conveyancing practice; it drops out of common usage in American instruments through the nineteenth century as more precise terminology took hold. Encountering commonage in a deed is itself a dating signal. Second, because all four source dictionaries treat commonage as a simple pointer to COMMON rather than a developed entry, researchers working with historical sources will find little independent analysis of the term — the substantive doctrine lives under COMMON and its subtypes. Third, in English sources, commonage may appear in the context of forest law, manorial records, and enclosure proceedings, where it carried practical significance for communities whose livelihoods depended on grazing rights. American corpus materials largely inherit the term from English conveyancing forms without the same manorial backdrop, so context matters when crossing jurisdictional lines in historical research.
Researchers tracing title chains involving rural or formerly rural land — particularly in New England and mid-Atlantic states where early grants sometimes tracked English common-field traditions — should be alert to commonage language in founding-era instruments. The right, if validly created and not extinguished by enclosure, adverse possession, or statutory action, may still attach to the land.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in complete agreement: commonage means the right of common as found in old deeds, and the entry for substantive doctrine is COMMON. Black's (both editions) and Burrill's are nearly identical in their treatment. Rapalje & Lawrence is marginally more informative, citing a Massachusetts case (19 Pick. 248) alongside the cross-reference, though the citation appears in the context of the immediately following entry (COMMONALTY) rather than as independent authority for commonage itself, which limits its usefulness.
None of the historical dictionaries develops the term beyond the cross-reference, which itself tells a research story: by the time these dictionaries were compiled, commonage was already understood as archaic conveyancing language requiring no independent treatment. Webster's 1913 is actually more expansive on usage than the legal dictionaries, which is unusual and underscores how thoroughly the term had been absorbed into the cross-referential structure of the law of common by the late nineteenth century.
Jurisdictional Note
The right of common underlying commonage is recognized in American property law but is far more developed and historically continuous in English law. In the United States, formal common-of-pasture rights are rare outside of a handful of New England communities and certain western public-land contexts (where the terminology differs). Researchers working with English materials will find a substantially richer doctrinal and historical record than in American sources.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Common (Property Law); Rights of Common; Common Fields and Enclosure.