Definition
An obsolete Latin term from old English law meaning to plant or sow with grain. The term appears in historical agrarian legal contexts, particularly in records and legal instruments concerned with the condition and use of agricultural land. The related noun form, *inbladatio*, denotes the act of sowing itself.
The term is encountered principally in medieval English legal and estate documentation where it was necessary to specify what crop had been planted in a given field — for example, in disputes over the condition of land at the time of a lease, the valuation of an estate, or the obligations of a tenant regarding cultivation.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval English agrarian law, manorial records, or early estate administration will encounter *inbladare* and its derivatives in Latin source texts. The term is functional rather than doctrinal — it appears not as the name of a legal concept but as descriptive language within instruments, pleadings, or surveys concerned with land use and husbandry obligations.
The phrase quoted by Burrill from Fleta — *quo blado inbladata fuerint* ("with what grain they were sown") — illustrates the practical context: a legal inquiry into the agrarian state of land, likely relevant to assessing value, damage, or the terms of a tenancy. Researchers should look for *inbladare* and *inbladatio* in manorial court rolls, extents, inquisitions post mortem, and agricultural surveys from the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, where Latin was the working language of estate administration.
Because the term lacks any modern survival in common or legal English, it will not appear in contemporary legal sources. Research is confined to the medieval Latin corpus. Cross-referencing with Spelman's *Glossarium Archaiologicum* and Fleta (Book II) is essential for understanding the term's precise scope in context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole entry among the Law Mind shelf sources. Burrill traces the term to two authorities: Spelman's *Glossarium*, which supplies the basic definition (to plant or sow), and Fleta, Book II, Chapter 41, Section 1, which preserves an example of the term in use. The Fleta passage is the more instructive of the two, showing *inbladare* functioning as a descriptive verb within a legal text concerned with the agrarian condition of land.
No modern legal dictionary carries this term, which reflects its complete obsolescence outside medieval Latin scholarship. Burrill's entry is brief and accurate; no substantive dispute or divergence exists across historical sources, simply because coverage is sparse. Researchers should treat Burrill as a finding aid pointing toward primary sources rather than as a complete account of the term's legal significance.