Definition
Faltam is an obsolete writ formerly available to a tenant in frank-marriage to recover lands or other property of which they had been deforced — that is, wrongfully dispossessed or withheld. The writ belongs to the medieval English system of real actions, procedural mechanisms by which a party sought to recover seisin (possessory title) of land rather than mere damages. It operated within the broader framework of frankmarriage tenure, under which land was granted to a couple upon marriage and their lineal heirs, typically free of ordinary feudal services for a defined number of generations.
Why It Matters in Research
Faltam appears almost nowhere in modern legal practice and carries no operative significance in any current jurisdiction. Its research value is almost entirely historical. Scholars working in medieval land law, the history of real actions, or the evolution of English tenure will encounter references to it in treatises and records predating the abolition of real actions in England by the Real Property Limitation Act 1833 and the Common Law Procedure Act 1852.
The primary trap for researchers is context collapse: faltam is not a free-standing concept but a procedural instrument tied to frankmarriage tenure, itself a species of fee tail. A researcher encountering the term in a historical source who is unfamiliar with frankmarriage will find the writ largely unintelligible without first understanding that tenure type. Bouvier's cross-reference to maritagium is the productive lead here — maritagium (the portion or estate given with a daughter in marriage) is the substantive concept; faltam is the remedy attached to it.
No American common law jurisdiction developed an equivalent writ. Colonial and early American land law did not replicate the full structure of English real actions in any consistent way, and frankmarriage tenure was not transplanted meaningfully into American practice. Researchers in American legal history will not encounter faltam in operative sources; its appearance, if any, will be in treatises or comparative discussions only.
The term also illustrates a recurring pattern in historical legal dictionaries: entries for obsolete writs that consist of a single sentence and an implicit cross-reference. When both Black's and Bouvier's give near-identical one-line definitions, as here, the dictionaries are performing an indexing function rather than an explanatory one. The real content lives in the cross-referenced entry — in this case, maritagium and the broader treatment of frankmarriage.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Bouvier's are in complete agreement on faltam: both describe it as an obsolete writ for the tenant in frank-marriage to recover lands of which he was deforced. Neither source offers procedural detail, historical context, or case illustration. This convergence reflects the term's status as a minor procedural relic rather than a doctrinal concept warranting sustained treatment.
Bouvier adds the cross-reference to maritagium, which is the more substantively developed entry and the appropriate companion for any researcher working in this area. The relationship between the two entries mirrors the relationship between the underlying concepts: maritagium defines the estate and the transaction; faltam is the remedial mechanism for enforcing rights arising from it.
Neither dictionary dates the writ's origin or identifies the period of its disuse. Historians of English real actions generally locate the systematic decline of real actions from the sixteenth century onward, as personal actions and ejectment became the dominant modes of land recovery. By the time Blackstone wrote and certainly by the nineteenth-century codifications, real actions including writs like faltam had become antiquarian curiosities.
Jurisdictional Note
Faltam has no modern jurisdictional relevance. It was an instrument of medieval English common law and was never operative in American courts. Researchers in English legal history may consult records of the Court of Common Pleas, where real actions were typically heard, for any surviving instances of the writ.