FIGHTWITE

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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FIGHTWITEAuthored
The Law Mind • 764 words
Definition
An Old English legal term for a fine or monetary penalty imposed on a person who initiated or participated in a fight or quarrel that disturbed the public peace. The term derives from Saxon law and represents one of the earliest formalized mechanisms for punishing breaches of the peace through financial sanction rather than corporal punishment. The fine was fixed at one hundred and twenty shillings. Cowell also referred to this penalty by the Latin designation forisfactura pugnae, meaning forfeiture on account of a fight.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In Medieval Britain, a fine imposed on someone for disturbing the peace with a fight or quarrel. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A mulct or fine imposed on a person for making a fight or quarrel to the disturbance of the peace. In this instance, common and legal usage align closely because the term never entered general modern English — it survived only in legal and historical dictionaries. The Webster's 1913 definition is itself drawn from legal sources. No meaningful gap exists between common and legal usage; the word simply has no life outside the legal-historical record.
Why It Matters in Research
Fightwite is a term of pure antiquarian significance. Researchers encounter it almost exclusively in two contexts: studies of Anglo-Saxon and early Norman peace-keeping law, and broader surveys of the mulct system — the body of fixed monetary penalties that characterized early English criminal procedure before discretionary sentencing became standard. The key research trap is archival fragmentation. The historical dictionaries themselves draw from a narrow chain of authority — primarily Spelman and Cowell — meaning that secondary sources on this term tend to repeat the same thin lineage rather than reflect independent documentary evidence. Researchers should be cautious about treating the uniformity of definitions across Black's, Rapalje & Lawrence, and Burrill as corroboration; it is more likely convergence on the same two sources. Fightwite sits within a cluster of Saxon peace-fine terminology. Understanding it requires familiarity with the broader vocabulary of early English monetary penalties: wergild (compensation paid to a victim's family), blodwite (fine for drawing blood), and hamfare or hamsocn (fine for attacking a person in their home). These terms operated as part of an integrated tariff system, and fightwite cannot be fully understood in isolation from that framework. For corpus researchers in Law Mind, fightwite will appear in glossaries, treatises on early English law, and encyclopedia entries treating the history of criminal sanctions. It is unlikely to appear in case reporters or statutory compilations from any period likely to generate modern legal questions.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in strong agreement. All define fightwite as a Saxon-origin fine for disturbing the peace through fighting, and all trace their authority to Cowell (John Cowell, The Interpreter, 1607) and Spelman (Henry Spelman, Glossarium Archaiologicum). Black's first and second editions are nearly identical on this entry. Burrill adds the Latin gloss mulcta ob commissam pugnam and cites both Spelman and Cowell, giving that entry the most scholarly texture of the four. Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is less useful — the source text as reproduced here is corrupted by what appears to be an intrusion from an unrelated entry on sheriff's returns and Roman numerals, suggesting a typesetting error in the original or a digitization artifact. Researchers relying on that edition should verify the entry against the physical volume. None of the historical dictionaries situate fightwite within the broader Saxon penalty tariff system or discuss its relationship to parallel fines. They treat it as an isolated gloss rather than a node in a legal structure. For that broader context, researchers should consult Spelman's Glossarium directly or secondary scholarship on Anglo-Saxon law.
Jurisdictional Note
Fightwite was a feature of Anglo-Saxon and early Norman English law and has no modern jurisdictional relevance. It did not survive into the common law tradition in any operative form. It is of interest only in English legal history; Scottish, Welsh, and Irish legal systems developed distinct but parallel peace-fine traditions under different terminology.
Related Terms
Blodwite — fine for bloodshed Wergild — compensatory payment for killing Hamsocn (Hamfare) — fine for attacking a person in their home Mulct — general term for a monetary penalty or fine Forisfactura — Latin term for forfeiture used in early Norman legal writing; see forisfactura pugnae Breach of the peace — the modern descendant conceptthough procedurally and structurally unrelated Amercement — a related but distinct mechanism for discretionary monetary penalties in medieval English courts
FIGHTWITEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
Sax. A mulct or fine the peace. Called also by Cowell "forisfac- tura pugnæ." The amount was one hundred and twenty shillings. Cowell.
FIGHTWITEmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
A fine or mulct imposed for making a quarrel to the disturbance of the peace.-Cowell. returnable (see RETURN), the sheriff returns their supposed origin; while the Roman either fieri feci, i. e. that he has levied the numerals are made with letters of the sum named in the writ, or a part of it, alphabet. The 6 Geo. II. c. 14, allowed which he is ready to pay to the execution expressing numbers by Arabic figures in creditor; or that he has taken goods which all writs, &c., pleadings, rules, orders, and remain unsold for want of buyers (see Disindictments, &c., in courts of justice, as TRINGAS NUPER VICECOMITEM; VENDITIONI had been commonly used, notwithstandEXPONAS); or nulla bona, i. e. that the exeing the 4 Geo. II. c. 26. cution debtor has no goods within his bailiwick. Smith Ac. 186; 3 Steph. Com. 583. See LEVARI FACIAS; WRIT. 2. Fieri facias de bonis ecclesiasticis.-In England, when the sheriff to a common fieri facias returns nulla bona, and that the defendant is a beneficed clerk not having any lay fee, the plaintiff sue out a facias de bonis ecclesiasticis, directed to the bishop of the diocese (or to the archbishop, during a vacancy of the bishop's see), commanding him to make of the ecclesiastical goods and chattels belonging to the defendant within his diocese, the sum therein mentioned. This is done by issuing a sequestration (q. v.) to levy the debt out of the tithes and other profits of the defendant's benefice. Archb. Pr. 1062; Sm. Ac. (11 edit.) 275, 396. 3. Fieri facias de bonis testatoris is the writ issued on an ordinary judgment against an executor when sued for a debt due by his testator; if the sheriff returns to this writ nulla bona, and a devastavit (q. v.), the plaintiff may sue out a fieri facias de bonis propriis, under which the goods of the executor himself are seized. 1 Wms. Saund. 246; Sm. Ac. (11 edit.) 368. See DEVASTAVIT; JUDGMENT; SCIRE
FIGHTWITEmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
Sax. In old English law. A mulct or fine imposed on a person for making a fight or quarrel, (mulcta ob commissam pugnam,) to the disturbance of the peace. Spelman. Cowell. FIL, File. L. Fr. A thread; a line. Jesques au fil del ewe; as far as the line of the water. Britt. c. 42, fol. 111 b. This corresponds with the Fr. jusqu'à fil de l'eau. Guyot, Inst. Feod. ch. 23. Jesques au fil de myleu del ewe; as far as the middle line or thread of the water. Britt. fol. 110.
FIGHTWITEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A mulct or fine imposed on a person for making a fight or quarrel to the disturbance of the peace.
fightwitenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
In Medieval Britain, a fine imposed on someone for disturbing the peace with a fight or quarrel.

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