Definition
In old English law, an acquittance or exemption from lestage — that is, a release from the duty or toll known as lestage, which was levied on goods sold by the last (a unit of measure or weight used for bulk commodities such as grain, fish, or other merchandise). The term appears in medieval legal and administrative texts as a formal grant or acknowledgment that a person, vessel, or trading party was freed from the obligation of paying lestage at a particular market or port.
The term is closely bound to its companion entry, lestus (also lastus), the Latin form denoting the last itself as a unit of measure — the underlying commodity standard against which lestage was assessed.
Why It Matters in Research
Lestinge is essentially a dead technical term, alive only in the context of medieval English fiscal and mercantile law. Researchers encountering it will almost certainly be working with pre-Norman or early post-Conquest materials — Domesday-era records, Fleta, or similar administrative compilations — rather than any living legal doctrine.
Several navigational points merit attention:
First, the term is inseparable from lestage. To understand lestinge, a researcher must first locate and interpret the underlying toll it releases. Lestage was one of several customary market and port dues — alongside lastage, toll, and similar charges — that were routinely grouped together in grants of market rights or port franchises. The scope of a lestinge acquittance depends entirely on what lestage covered in a particular locality, which varied.
Second, Burrill's entry is compressed to the point of being a cross-reference rather than a definition. It points to Fleta, lib. 1, c. 47, § 11 as authority. Fleta is a late-thirteenth-century English legal treatise compiled during the reign of Edward I, drawing heavily on Bracton. Researchers who need substantive doctrine must go to Fleta directly; Burrill offers no independent analysis.
Third, there is a persistent terminological tangle in historical sources between lestage, lastage, and related toll terms. These were not always used consistently by medieval administrators or later legal antiquarians. A researcher should treat any single-source definition with caution and cross-check against primary administrative records (pipe rolls, borough charters, port books) where possible.
Fourth, this term has no modern legal application. It is purely of historical and antiquarian interest. It will not appear in any modern statutory code, restatement, or case law.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the principal English-language legal dictionary source for lestinge, and his entry is brief to the point of compression: he defines it as an acquittance from lestage and cites Fleta. No independent elaboration is offered.
Burrill's companion entry for lestus (lastus) adds some useful texture, noting that a last was a recognized measure of commodities, again citing Fleta (lib. 2, c. 12, §§ 2, 3). Together the two entries establish the conceptual chain: lestus (the unit of measure) → lestage (the toll assessed on goods measured by the last) → lestinge (the acquittance from that toll).
Historical dictionaries do not shed additional light beyond this chain. Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, and Cowell's Interpreter do not appear to carry independent entries for lestinge, though Cowell addresses related terms in the context of old English tenure and market customs. The absence of the term from those sources reinforces its status as a narrow administrative term of limited circulation even in the medieval period.
No modern legal encyclopedia or treatise carries the term as a live doctrine.
Jurisdictional Note
Lestinge is specific to the medieval English legal system and has no counterpart in other common law jurisdictions. It did not migrate to American law. Researchers working in Scottish, Irish, or Welsh historical sources should treat it as an English term requiring independent verification of any local equivalent.