Definition
A Latin verb meaning "to bring" or "to carry," used in old common law pleading and practice. The term appears in procedural formulas describing the act of bringing a writ, record, or other instrument before a court. It is not used as a standalone legal term in modern practice but survives in derivative forms and cross-references within historical legal Latin vocabulary.
Common Confusion
Ferre is easily conflated with portare, the other principal Latin verb for "to carry" or "to bear" used in old practice. While both terms describe acts of bringing or conveying, historical usage treated them as technically distinct. Burrill directs readers from ferre to both tulit and portare, suggesting that courts and pleaders drew contextual distinctions among these terms. Researchers encountering ferre in a historical record should not assume it is interchangeable with portare without consulting the surrounding procedural context.
Why It Matters in Research
Ferre is a research gateway term rather than a substantive legal concept. Its primary value lies in connecting researchers to related Latin procedural vocabulary. If you encounter ferre in a historical writ, pleading, or court record, the operative content is almost always found in the conjugated or derived form — most importantly tulit, the perfect tense of ferre meaning "he brought," which appears in writs and procedural recitals as a term of art. Researchers working in pre-nineteenth century common law materials, particularly English common law pleading records, should treat ferre as a signal to consult the associated Latin conjugations and not treat the infinitive form as the operative term.
Because historical legal dictionaries built on Latin roots often cross-reference heavily without explaining the practical procedural significance, a researcher relying solely on an entry like Burrill's risks circular navigation — ferre points to tulit and portare, which may in turn point back. The better research path is to identify the conjugated form in context and work from there.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is minimal: "Lat. In old practice. To bring. See Tulit, Portare." This entry does not define a doctrine, right, or cause of action — it is a Latin vocabulary marker directing the reader to procedurally operative terms. Burrill's approach is consistent with his treatment of Latin root verbs generally: he flags the infinitive for completeness and cross-reference, then delegates substantive content to the forms that actually appeared in pleading formulas. No divergence among historical sources is meaningful here because ferre appears to have attracted so little dedicated treatment that Burrill's brief note constitutes essentially the full historical dictionary record on the infinitive form itself.