Definition
In legal usage, "cry" carries two distinct senses:
1. To proclaim or publish aloud; to announce something publicly, especially by verbal declaration before an assembled crowd. In the context of real property and commercial transactions, to "cry" a sale meant to announce it by public outcry — that is, to offer property or goods at auction through a licensed crier or auctioneer.
2. In the phrase CRY DE PAIS (also CRI DE PAIS): the public alarm or hue and cry raised by the people of a neighborhood or locality upon the commission of a felony. "De pais" derives from the law French for "of the country" or "of the neighborhood," meaning the cry originated with the community at large rather than with any official authority. The cry de pais obligated all who heard it to join in pursuit of the offender.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A shedding of tears; a shout or scream; words shouted or screamed; a clamor or outcry; a desperate or urgent request.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To make a loud call or cry; to call or exclaim vehemently or earnestly; to shout; to vociferate; to proclaim; to pray.
The legal meaning overlaps with the "proclaim" and "clamor" senses but is narrower and more procedural. In law, "cry" is not merely any loud utterance — it is a formal or semi-formal act of public announcement carrying legal consequences: it transfers title at auction, or it triggers the communal obligation of pursuit. A researcher encountering "cry" in old records should not read it as an emotional act or a general outcry but as a term of legal procedure.
Common Confusion
CRY and HUE AND CRY are closely related but not identical. "Hue and cry" is the broader, more formalized doctrine — the legal mechanism of pursuit that, in English common law, imposed liability on hundreds that failed to apprehend a fleeing felon. "Cry de pais" is specifically the communal shout that initiated that process, emphasizing its origin in the people rather than in official command. The two terms are often used interchangeably in historical sources, but when precision matters — particularly in tracing whether a particular obligation arose from official warrant or from spontaneous public alarm — the distinction is worth preserving.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will most commonly encounter "cry" in two distinct documentary contexts, and conflating them introduces error.
In property and commercial records, "crying" a sale is the functional equivalent of conducting a public auction. Early American court records, particularly Virginia and other colonial-era jurisdictions, routinely record that land was "cried" before sale. The legal significance is that the public proclamation satisfied notice requirements — it was the announcement that gave the sale legal effect. Researchers tracing title chains or disputed sales in pre-19th-century records should treat "cried" as a term of art signaling a public auction procedure, not merely a colorful description.
In criminal law and early police history, "cry de pais" appears in materials concerning the hue and cry doctrine, which persisted in American common law well into the early republic. The phrase signals community-based law enforcement, and its presence in a record may help establish when, where, and by whom pursuit was initiated — relevant to questions of lawful arrest, liability of the hundred, and the legal status of the pursuer.
The term largely disappears from legal usage by the mid-19th century as formalized auction procedures and professional police institutions replaced both public criers and communal pursuit. Researchers working in sources after roughly 1850 will rarely encounter it except in historical or treatise contexts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines "cry" as "to call out aloud; to proclaim; to publish; to sell at auction," illustrating with the phrase "to cry a tract of land" drawn from early Virginia reports. Black's also identifies "cry de pais" as the hue and cry raised by the people, providing the law French variant. Anderson's Dictionary of Law does not define the term independently, directing the reader instead to the entries for AUCTION, CRIER, and PAIS — a cross-referencing approach that underscores how fully the legal content of "cry" is embedded in those related concepts.
Neither source dwells on the procedural mechanics or the temporal arc of the term's obsolescence. Both treat it as settled vocabulary rather than as a term in transition, which reflects the period of compilation but can mislead modern researchers into treating it as living doctrine rather than historical usage.
Jurisdictional Note
The "cry de pais" and hue and cry doctrine was an English common law inheritance adopted broadly across American jurisdictions but never uniform in its application or abolition. Virginia sources are particularly rich given the colonial-era land sale records in which "crying" property appeared frequently. Researchers should consult jurisdiction-specific materials rather than assume uniform procedure across states.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: HUE AND CRY (for the doctrine of communal pursuit and its common law development); AUCTION (for the procedural context of crying a sale); CRIER (for the officer authorized to make public proclamations).