HAGA

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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HAGAAuthored
The Law Mind • 588 words
Definition
In old English law, a house situated within a city or borough. The term appears in medieval records, particularly in Domesday Book, to denote a dwelling or urban tenement held by a tenant in exchange for money rent or services. The term is closely associated with the survey terminology of early Norman England and reflects the Latin adaptation of an older Saxon word for an enclosed dwelling or hedged plot.
Why It Matters in Research
HAGA is a term researchers encounter almost exclusively in medieval legal and historical sources — Domesday Book, early land surveys, and Anglo-Norman tenure records — rather than in case law or statutory texts. Its significance is essentially antiquarian: it identifies a category of urban property holding in pre- and early post-Conquest England. Researchers working in property history, feudal tenure, or early municipal law should be alert to the term's appearance in Latin records, where it is typically rendered in the plural as *hagae*. The Domesday citation in Burrill is illustrative: holdings are described in terms of hagas, the number of pence owed, and the services attached, making clear that the haga was a recognized unit of urban tenure with defined obligations. The term has no continuing legal significance in modern common law and will not appear in post-medieval case law. Its relevance is confined to historical legal research, particularly research into the origins of urban property rights, borough tenure, and the development of municipal land organization in England. Note also that the Rapalje & Lawrence entry in the source material does not address HAGA at all — that entry concerns Latin heir terminology (HAERES, HAEREDITAS) and appears to have been misassociated with this term. Researchers consulting Rapalje & Lawrence for HAGA should not expect useful content on this specific entry.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in agreement on the core definition: HAGA denotes a house within a city or borough. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier offer the same terse definition with the attribution "Scott," referring to legal antiquarian sources of that period. Burrill provides the most substantive treatment, tracing the term to its Saxon roots — *hægh* and *hagh*, meaning an enclosure or hedge — and quoting directly from Domesday Book entries for Sussex. Those entries record specific tenants, the number of hagas held, the rents payable in pence or shillings, and whether the holding carried service obligations. This confirms that HAGA was not merely a descriptive label but a tenure category with legal and economic content in the Domesday survey framework. No historical dictionary in the corpus traces the term into later common law development, which is itself informative: HAGA was effectively a terminus in legal vocabulary, absorbed into or replaced by broader property terminology as English law developed post-Conquest.
Jurisdictional Note
HAGA is specific to the English legal tradition and has no recognized equivalent or usage in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. Research relevance is limited to English medieval legal history.
Related Terms
HAEREDITAS — inheritance in Roman and early common law usage BOROUGH — the urban unit within which a haga was situated TENEMENT — the broader property law concept that eventually subsumed urban holdings of this type DOMESDAY BOOK — the primary source in which hagae are catalogued SEISIN — early possessory concept relevant to understanding how such holdings were held FEE SIMPLE — for contrast with the conditional or service-bearing nature of early urban tenures
HAGAmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
A house in a city or borough. cents. Scott.
HAGAmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
(591) after the ancestor's death, no title to it has been made up in the person of his heir. -Bell Dict. See HÆREDITAS. HÆRES EX ASSE. - An heir to the as (q. v.) or whole estate; a sole heir. HÆRES EXTRANEUS. - A strange or HÆREDITAS LUCTUOSA.-A foreign heir. See HÆREDES. mournful inheritance, e. g. an inheritance coming to a parent from a child. HÆRES FACTUS. - An heir appointed; a devisee.
HAGAmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870
L. Lat. [from Sax. hægh and hagh, an enclosure or hedge.] In old English law. A house. Radulfus tenet unam hagam de xii denar'; Willielmus v hagas de v sol; Nigellus v hagas quæ faciunt servitium; Ralph holds one house of twelve pence; William five houses of five shillings; Nigel five houses which do service. Domesd. titt. Sussex, Terra Rogerii, nu. 11. Spelman. Defined by an anonymous author to be a house with shops, (domus cum shopis.) Spelman. A house in a city or borough. Co. Litt. 5 b, 55 b. Cowell. Cum novem præfatæ civitatis habitaculis quæ patria lingua hagan appellari solent; with nine small cases of intestacy. Story's Conflict of dwellings of the said city, which in the naLaws, § 507. 3 Bl. Com. 224. HÆRES NECESSARIUS. Lat. In the civil law. A necessary heir; a slave made an heir was so called, because, on the death of the testator, whether he would or not, he became instantly free and a necessary heir. Inst. 2. 19. 1. See Hæredes necessarii. This term is applied by Sir William Scott to the mate of a vessel. "The mate is hæres necessarius to the employment of master, in case of necessity." The Favorite, 2 Rob. Adm. R. 237. That is, the duties of master devolve by necessity upon him. HÆRES RECTUS. L. English law. A right heir. c. 1, § 11. Lat. In old Fleta, lib. 6, HÆRES SUUS. Lat. In the civil law. A proper heir; literally, one's own heir. A term applied to the children and grand-children of a deceased person. Inst. 3. 1. 4, 5. See Hæredes sui. HÆRET. See Hærere. HÆRETARE. L. Lat. In old English law. To give a right of inheritance, or make the donation hereditary to the grantee and his heirs. Cowell. Histor. Eliensis, c. 41, cited ibid. HÆSITARE. L. Lat. In old practice. To hesitate. A term used in the reports. "Anderson hæsitavit in the words of the limitation." 1 Leon. 74. "Powell, tive language are called hagan. Chart. Ethelred. Regis, in auct. Mat. Par. fol. 240. Blount. A hedge. Fossato et haga; with a ditch and hedge. 2 Mon. Angl. 273. A military enclosure; (sepimentum militare.) Spelman. HAIA, Haya. L. Lat. [from Fr. haie, haye.] In old English law. A hedge, or enclosure. Inclusum fossato, haya vel palatio; inclosed with a ditch, hedge or paling. Bract. fol. 97 b. Parvo fossato et bassa haia includere; to enclose with a small ditch and low hedge. Reg. Orig. 257 b. 8 Co. 138 a. See Haya. A park, or enclosed ground. Spelman. See Hay. HAIE, Haye. L. Fr. A hedge. Kelham.

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