Definition
An obsolete Latin term from medieval English legal practice meaning to fork, divide, or branch. The term appears in the context of essoins — formal excuses for a party's absence from court — where it described the procedural act of dividing or casting an essoin into one of its recognized categories or branches. A secondary, more literal agricultural meaning also appears in the sources: to move or pitch with a fork, as in handling grain or hay (furcare ad tassum, to fork to a stack).
---
Why It Matters in Research
Furcare is a term a researcher will encounter only in deeply historical English common law sources, particularly those dealing with the procedural mechanics of essoins. Its significance is narrow but precise: when reading medieval treatise material on essoin practice — especially Hengham's Magna — the term describes a classificatory or branching step in the essoin process, not a substantive legal concept in its own right. Researchers working with Latin law French hybrid texts should note that the term bridges Latin (furca, a fork) and Law French (fourcher, forcher), and variant spellings across manuscript and early print sources are common. The agricultural gloss (furcare ad tassum) appearing in Cowell is unrelated to the procedural meaning and represents the literal Latin root bleeding into legal vocabulary; do not conflate the two uses when reading undifferentiated glossary entries. This term has no modern legal survival and no relevance outside historical common law research.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary source supporting this entry and draws on two older authorities: Hengham's Magna (chapter 9) and Cowell's Interpreter. Burrill presents both the procedural meaning (to fork or divide in casting essoins) and the literal meaning (to move with a fork), attributing each to Cowell. The citation to Hengham's Magna is the more authoritative grounding for the procedural sense, as that treatise is the classical medieval source on essoin practice in English courts. Cowell's entries tend toward broad glossing of Latin legal terms and include the agricultural meaning, which Burrill dutifully preserves but which is of minimal legal utility. No modern legal dictionary carries this term, and no common law jurisdiction retains the essoin procedures to which it was attached. Researchers should treat the Hengham citation as the primary anchor for the procedural meaning.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Furcare is exclusively a term of historical English common law and has no recognized equivalent or survival in any modern common law jurisdiction.
---