Definition
An archaic term from English forest law referring to the fawning of deer — that is, the season or act of deer giving birth to their young. The term appears in the law of the forest as part of the elaborate regulatory framework governing royal and noble hunting preserves in medieval England. During the fawning season, certain activities within a forest or chase were restricted or prohibited to protect deer and their offspring.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear almost exclusively in medieval and early modern sources dealing with English forest law, forest courts, and the rights and offenses associated with royal forests, chases, and parks. Researchers encountering it in historical records should understand it as a term of art within that narrow domain, not a term of general common law application.
The fawning season carried legal significance because forest law imposed specific protections during periods of reproduction. Disturbance of deer during fawning could constitute a forest offense subject to the jurisdiction of forest courts, including the Court of Attachment (also called the Woodmote), the Swainmote, and the Court of Justice Seat. A researcher working through forest eyre records, swainmote rolls, or treatises on forest law — such as Manwood's Treatise and Lawes of the Forest — is most likely to encounter this term.
Because forest law was a largely self-contained legal system operating parallel to the common law, terms like foinisum do not migrate easily into other areas of legal research. Do not expect cross-references in common law pleading manuals or equity treatises. The term is essentially a dead end outside forest law sources.
The spelling is not standardized across historical sources. Variant spellings are possible, and researchers consulting manuscript records or early printed sources should search flexibly.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the only relevant entry among the standard historical legal dictionaries, and it is brief: "The fawning of deer," citing Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum. Spelman's Glossarium is the foundational reference for archaic legal and ecclesiastical Latin terms drawn from English medieval records, and Bouvier's reliance on it here signals that foinisum is a term recovered from medieval Latin sources rather than from active common law usage.
No substantive elaboration appears in Bouvier beyond this single line, which itself reflects the term's extreme narrowness. The historical dictionaries collectively offer nothing further. Researchers needing depth on the legal context of fawning seasons in forest law must go beyond dictionary sources to forest law treatises and primary forest court records directly.
Jurisdictional Note
Foinisum is entirely a term of English law — specifically the law of the royal forests as it developed from the Norman Conquest through the early modern period. It has no counterpart in American law. Researchers in American legal history will not encounter it.