Definition
An archaic legal term meaning the occasion, cause, or reason for which something is done. Derived from early law French usage and appearing primarily in medieval and early modern legal sources, encheson functioned as a general term of justification or causation — the ground or motive underlying a legal act, proceeding, or decision.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is effectively extinct in modern legal writing and will not appear in contemporary statutes, case law, or secondary sources. Researchers encounter it almost exclusively in medieval English legal texts, Year Books, early plea rolls, and works drawing directly from the law French tradition — particularly Termes de la Ley, the glossary of legal terms compiled in the late medieval period and reprinted through the seventeenth century. When transcribing or interpreting early common law documents, encheson signals that the author is explaining the jurisdictional or substantive basis for an action, writ, or judicial act. It is functionally analogous to "cause shown" or "cause of action" in modern procedural vocabulary, though it carries a broader sense than either. Researchers working with translated Year Books or abridgments should be alert to variant spellings — encheson, encheison, and encheisoun all appear in the historical corpus — and should not mistake it for a term with narrower technical meaning. It is a word of general reasoning, not a term of art with defined legal consequences.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries reproduce the definition in nearly identical language, each tracing the term directly to Termes de la Ley. Black's first and second editions offer no expansion beyond that single-line gloss, and Rapalje & Lawrence likewise treats the term as self-explanatory once the source is cited. The uniformity across the three dictionaries reflects the term's status as a fossilized relic: by the nineteenth century, when these works were compiled, encheson was already a matter of antiquarian legal vocabulary rather than live practice. None of the dictionaries offer illustrative usage, contextual examples, or commentary on how the term was deployed in specific procedural contexts — a notable limitation for any researcher trying to understand its range of application in original sources. The sole authoritative anchor is Termes de la Ley itself, and researchers seeking fuller context should consult that work directly.