Definition
An archaic term found in old English land records denoting a long, narrow strip of ground. The term appears exclusively in historical conveyancing and land measurement contexts and has no modern legal equivalent in active use.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering FORURTH in historical documents should treat it as a descriptive term of physical land configuration rather than a term of legal art carrying rights or status implications. It appears in early English land records, surveys, and conveyances where the shape and layout of parcels were described with precision because strip-field agriculture made narrow plot configurations legally significant for purposes of tenure, boundary disputes, and apportionment. A researcher working with medieval or early modern English land records — particularly those involving common-field systems, open-field agriculture, or manorial surveys — may encounter FORURTH as part of a parcel description alongside related measurement and configuration terms. Do not confuse descriptive terms of this kind with terms of title or tenure; FORURTH describes what the land looks like, not who holds it or how.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three shelf sources — Black's Law Dictionary (1st ed.), Black's Law Dictionary (2nd ed.), and Burrill's Law Dictionary — agree precisely: FORURTH means, in old records, a long slip of ground. All three attribute the definition to Cowell, referring to John Cowell's The Interpreter (1607), an early glossary of legal and antiquarian terms. The sources are in complete agreement and offer no elaboration beyond this single-sentence gloss. The brevity is itself informative: by the time these dictionaries were compiled, FORURTH had been entirely displaced from active legal use and survived only as an antiquarian entry. None of the sources provide documentary examples, and none discuss the term in the context of any legal proceeding or instrument. Researchers should not expect richer treatment in secondary legal literature; the trail ends with Cowell.