Definition
In English forest law, expeditation was the compulsory mutilation of large dogs — particularly mastiffs — kept near royal forests, as a measure to prevent them from pursuing deer and other protected game. The procedure involved cutting off the claws or the ball (pelota) of the forefoot, rendering the dog incapable of sustained pursuit without fully disabling it. Burrill notes two recognized methods: removing three claws of the right forefoot (the ortelli), or excising the ball of the same foot. The obligation to expeditate dogs was imposed on persons living within or adjacent to forest boundaries and was enforced through a specialized tribunal known as the Court of Regard, which convened periodically to inspect dogs and ensure compliance.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "The process of expeditating." (Circular; the term has no independent modern common meaning.)
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as a common word.
Editorial note: The root verb "expedite" in modern English means to accelerate or facilitate — essentially the opposite of what expeditation did to a dog. A researcher encountering this term without context might instinctively associate it with speed or efficiency. The legal term has no such connection; it describes a deliberate physical impairment, not an acceleration of any process.
Common Confusion
Expeditation is sometimes loosely conflated with "lawing," a synonym used in forest law practice. Burrill treats lawing as the broader term for the same act, with expeditation as the specific mode or procedure. The two terms are functionally interchangeable in most historical sources, but researchers should note that lawing could occasionally refer to related enforcement practices more generally. Neither term has survived into modern legal usage.
Why It Matters in Research
Expeditation is a term of pure historical English forest law with no modern operational equivalent. Researchers encountering it will almost exclusively do so in:
— Pre-1800 English legal sources dealing with royal forests, forest charters, or manorial obligations;
— Discussions of the Court of Regard, which had jurisdiction to oversee expeditation obligations and levy penalties for non-compliance;
— Commentary on the Charter of the Forest (Carta de Foresta), particularly chapter 6 of the 9 Henry III version, which Burrill and Bouvier both cite as the governing authority.
The primary research trap is terminological: expeditation, lawing, and hambling (sometimes used for similar mutilation of other animals) appear inconsistently across historical sources, and a single document may use only one of these terms. Researchers working in forest law contexts should cross-search all three.
A secondary trap involves the Court of Regard itself. That tribunal's records, where they survive, are the practical evidentiary source for expeditation enforcement — the term rarely appears in isolation outside of legal glossaries and forest administration documents.
This term has no live jurisdictional significance. It is purely an artifact of the English common law forest system, which was not received into American law.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in close agreement. All define expeditation as the mutilation of dogs' forefeet to prevent deer-chasing, all cite Spelman's Glossarium as primary authority, and most add Cowell's Interpreter. Bouvier and Burrill both point to the Carta de Foresta as the statutory foundation.
Burrill provides the most technically detailed entry, distinguishing the two surgical methods (claw removal versus ball excision) and identifying the specific body part terms (ortelli, pelota) drawn from Spelman. This level of detail is absent from both editions of Black's, which give workmanlike summary definitions adequate for identification but insufficient for reconstructing forest law procedure.
None of the dictionaries addresses the enforcement mechanism in depth. For that, researchers must turn to the Court of Regard entry, which Bouvier cross-references explicitly and which is the appropriate starting point for understanding how expeditation obligations were administered in practice.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Forest Law (English); Court of Regard; Charter of the Forest.