Definition
An archaic Law French term with two related but distinct senses found in early legal records and abridgements:
1. To inform; to instruct. Used in procedural contexts to indicate that a party or official has been given notice or direction.
2. Instructed; having received information or direction. Used as a past participial form, as in a party described as having been ensensed of a matter before the court.
A secondary and partially preserved usage connects the term to subjection to service — derived from the Law French root *enserver* — appearing in contexts involving feudal obligations and the status of persons bound to render service.
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Common Confusion
The Burrill entry is fragmentary, and the two senses recorded — (1) to inform/instruct, and (2) subject to service — should not be conflated. The first is procedural; the second is feudal-tenurial. Researchers encountering ensenser or ensenses in a manuscript source must determine from context which sense is operative. The appearance of fraunches (franchises) in Burrill's partial citation suggests the feudal-service sense arose in discussions of whether persons holding certain franchises were nonetheless subject to service obligations.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is encountered almost exclusively in early English legal records, plea rolls, and abridgements written in Law French — roughly the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Researchers working in that corpus should be alert to the following:
Variant spellings and truncation. Law French spelling was highly unstable. Ensenser, ensensed, and ensenses all appear. In manuscript sources the term may be abbreviated or corrupted, and a diplomatic transcription may not make the sense immediately clear.
Two distinct research paths. If the context is procedural (notice, instruction, information given to a party or official), the term belongs to the body of Law French vocabulary governing pleading and judicial process. If the context involves feudal tenure, servitude, or franchise, the term connects to the literature on villeinage, tenure by service, and the conditions attached to grants of liberty.
Kelham and Britton as primary glosses. Burrill cites Kelham's Normand Dictionary and Britton (c. 4) as his authorities. Researchers who need more context should go directly to those sources. Kelham's glossary is the standard reference for Law French vocabulary; Britton is an early treatise on English law compiled circa 1290, written in Law French, and its chapter 4 is a natural anchor for verifying usage.
Danger of over-interpreting the fragment. The Burrill entry is visibly incomplete — the citation string breaks off mid-passage. Any conclusion drawn from Burrill alone about the feudal-service sense should be treated as preliminary until confirmed against Britton or another primary source.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical dictionary source indexed for this term. The entry is fragmentary, offering two definitions (to inform/instruct; instructed) with attribution to Kelham and Britton, then pivoting to a second sense (subject to service, from *enserver*) before the text is cut off. The reference to *ascuns fraunches* (certain franchises) in the truncated passage suggests the feudal sense appeared in a context distinguishing persons who held franchises from those subject to service — a distinction common in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century English legal writing.
No other major historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus (Tomlin, Jacob, Black) appear to carry this term, which reflects its narrow currency: ensenser was specialist Law French vocabulary, not part of the common lawyer's working lexicon by the time English displaced Law French in the courts.
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Jurisdictional Note
The term is specific to the English common law tradition and its Law French documentary heritage. It has no cognate usage in Scots law, civilian systems, or American legal sources.
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