Definition
An archaic Scots law term meaning "lawful" or "legitimate." Appearing in old Scottish legal records and texts, leasum functioned as an adjectival descriptor applied to acts, persons, or conditions that conformed to law — essentially the Scots equivalent of the Latin licitus or the English "lawful." Its use was characteristic of early Scottish legal writing before Scots law underwent systematic Latinization and later anglicization.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in early Scots law materials — particularly pre-Union records, feudal charters, court protocols, and burgh records — may encounter leasum as a qualifying term attached to transactions, statuses, or conduct. Its significance is primarily authenticating and contextual: the presence of leasum signals that a document is either genuinely archaic or consciously archaizing. Because Burrill's entry cross-references Skene's De Verborum Significatione, researchers pursuing the precise historical scope of the term should go directly to Skene, which remains an indispensable primary glossary for old Scots legal vocabulary. Note that Burrill's entry is truncated and runs together with an unrelated entry (LEAURE), suggesting the source was working from a compressed or damaged text — treat the Burrill entry as a pointer to Skene rather than a self-sufficient authority. Researchers should not rely on leasum appearing in general English legal dictionaries; it is essentially invisible outside the Scottish manuscript and early printed tradition.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill provides only a minimal entry: "Sc. In old Scotch law. Lawful." The cross-reference to Skene's De Verborum Significatione (specifically the entries under Manus mortua and Vadium) is the substantive lead. Thomas Craig's Jus Feudale and Balfour's Practicks, both foundational texts of early Scots law, operate in the period and register where leasum would appear, though neither is a dictionary source. No other major historical legal dictionary in the English tradition — not Cowell, not Jacob, not Tomlin — appears to carry the term, reflecting its confinement to the Scottish legal lexicon. The adjacent Burrill entry for LEAURE (L. Fr., "breadth" or "legality; sufficiency") is a separate term entirely and should not be conflated with leasum despite their physical proximity in the printed text.
Jurisdictional Note
Strictly a Scots law term. It has no cognate use in English common law sources and would not appear in Irish or colonial American legal materials. Relevant only to researchers working in Scottish legal history prior to the eighteenth century.