Definition
An obsolete Law French term meaning jewels. Used in medieval English legal texts to refer to personal ornaments, precious stones, and other items of jewelry as objects of property.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this term will find it almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal sources, particularly documents and statutes from the medieval and early modern periods. The term appears in Articuli super Cartas (the Articles upon the Charters), a statute of Edward I, where it designates jewels as a category of personal property. Any researcher working with medieval property law, royal prerogative, or the law of chattels in early English sources should recognize this as a property descriptor rather than a term of legal art carrying procedural significance. The term has no modern legal successor in technical usage — contemporary legal instruments use "jewelry," "personal ornaments," or specific descriptions of chattel property. Burrill's citation is sparse, and researchers should not expect further elaboration in other standard historical dictionaries.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides only a brief gloss: "L. Fr. Jewels. Artic. sup. Chart. c. 20." This is the extent of the historical dictionary record for this term. No substantive legal doctrine attaches to the word itself in the sources — it functions as a descriptive noun identifying a class of property rather than defining a legal concept or cause of action. Researchers should treat it accordingly: as vocabulary necessary to read medieval texts, not as a term that carries its own doctrinal weight.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the historical common law tradition of England and appears in no modern jurisdiction's legal vocabulary as a term of art.