Definition
A term from medieval legal usage with two distinct meanings depending on jurisdiction and context:
1. (Old Scotch law) A measurer of land; an official or person charged with determining the dimensions or extent of a parcel of land. Roughly equivalent to what Roman law called an agrimensor.
2. (Old English law) A limit or boundary of land; a territorial marker or demarcation line dividing one parcel or jurisdiction from another.
The two meanings are etymologically related but functionally distinct — one refers to a person who performs a boundary-related function, the other to the boundary itself.
Common Confusion
The two definitions of LANDIMER are easily conflated because both arise from the same linguistic root and both appear in closely related historical legal contexts. Researchers should note that Burrill's Law Dictionary distinguishes them explicitly: the English usage denotes a physical or legal boundary, while the Scotch usage denotes a person who measures land. Black's Law Dictionary (both first and second editions) records only the Scotch sense, omitting the English boundary meaning entirely. A researcher relying solely on Black's will encounter an incomplete picture of the term's range.
Why It Matters in Research
LANDIMER is a term that will appear almost exclusively in historical sources predating modern land registration systems. Its practical relevance is archival and interpretive rather than doctrinal.
Several navigational points deserve attention:
First, the source divergence is itself informative. Black's (both editions) defines LANDIMER only as a Scotch land measurer, citing Skene. Burrill adds the Old English boundary meaning and supplies the etymological grounding. When encountering the term in a historical document, the jurisdiction of the source will be the primary guide to which meaning applies.
Second, researchers working with Scottish ecclesiastical or feudal land records — particularly those involving runrig tenure, burgh boundaries, or baronial grants — are most likely to encounter the Scotch sense of the term. The agrimensor parallel is useful: just as Roman land surveyors produced authoritative measurements with legal effect, the landimer in Scotch usage would have performed a quasi-official function tied to conveyancing and dispute resolution.
Third, researchers working with Old English land charters, perambulations, or documents defining metes and bounds may encounter the boundary sense. In that context, LANDIMER functions similarly to terms like LANDMARK or BOUNDARY MARK and should be read as describing a physical or recognized limit rather than a person.
Fourth, the term does not appear in modern law. It has no statutory survival, no case law application, and no regulatory echo. Its utility is entirely confined to interpreting historical instruments. Treat it as a term of art requiring the same interpretive care as other feudal or medieval land vocabulary.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries agree on the Scotch definition but diverge on scope. Black's (1st and 2nd editions) rely on Skene's De Verborum Significatione as authority and offer a brief, consistent definition: a measurer of land in old Scotch law. Neither edition elaborates further or notes the English boundary meaning.
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the most complete source. It supplies both meanings, identifies the etymological components (land + Old Saxon gemære, meaning boundary), and cites Spelman for the English boundary sense alongside Skene for the Scotch surveyor sense. Burrill also provides the Latin equivalent landimera and the Roman law parallel agrimensor, which is useful for researchers triangulating across legal traditions.
No source provides a working definition sufficient for resolving ambiguity in a primary document without contextual support. The dictionaries confirm existence and general meaning; the specific legal effect in any given instrument will depend on the document's jurisdiction, date, and surrounding text.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is historical and jurisdiction-specific: the boundary sense is associated with Old English law, while the land measurer sense belongs to old Scotch law. Neither usage survives in modern English, Scottish, or American legal systems. Researchers applying the term in any contemporary context would be working exclusively from historical analogy.