LESWES - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

LESWESAuthored

The Law Mind • 559 words

Definition

An archaic legal term meaning pastures. Used in early English land law, LESWES denoted grazing grounds or pasture lands appurtenant to or conveyed with an estate. The term appears primarily in Domesday Book and in medieval and early modern deeds and conveyances, where it was inserted to ensure that pasture rights and lands passed with the principal grant.

Why It Matters in Research

LESWES is a term of art found almost exclusively in historical documents — Domesday Book entries, medieval charters, and pre-modern conveyances. Researchers encountering the word in original deeds or in transcriptions of Domesday should treat it as equivalent to "pastures" or pasture appurtenances, not as a distinct legal interest with ongoing modern significance.

The chief research trap is misreading the term as a proper noun (a place name or surname) or as a variant spelling of another legal concept. Because LESWES appears in formulaic lists within conveyancing instruments — often alongside terms such as meadows, woods, waters, and commons — context will almost always confirm the pasture meaning.

Researchers working in property history, agrarian law, or the history of real covenants should note that LESWES represents one of several archaic descriptors that populated comprehensive land grants. Its presence signals that the grantor intended to convey grazing rights along with the principal parcel. Failure to recognize the term could lead a researcher to undercount the scope of rights originally conveyed.

Coke's reference at Co. Litt. 4b, cited uniformly across the historical dictionaries, is the primary authority. Researchers relying on Coke on Littleton will find LESWES treated as part of the standard catalogue of appurtenances in a feoffment.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (both the 1st and 2nd editions) and Bouvier's Law Dictionary are in complete agreement: LESWES means pastures, full stop. All three sources cite Coke on Littleton (4b) as authority. Black's (1st and 2nd) additionally reference Domesday and note that the term was "often inserted in old deeds and conveyances," citing Cowell's legal dictionary as further support. Bouvier's is the most spare, offering only the definition and the Coke citation.

None of the historical sources elaborate on how LESWES related to other forms of pasture rights (such as common of pasture or estovers), nor do they distinguish LESWES from closely related Anglo-Norman land terms. This is consistent with the term's narrow, descriptive function — it was a label, not a legal doctrine. Researchers should not expect to find developed case law interpreting LESWES as a term of legal significance independent of the conveyance in which it appears.

The reference to Cowell is to John Cowell's The Interpreter (various editions from 1607 onward), a recognized glossary of law terms. Cowell's inclusion of LESWES further confirms its status as a term of the conveyancing art rather than a term of common law doctrine.

Jurisdictional Note

LESWES is a term of English law with no separate American legal development. It will appear in American legal research only in the context of colonial-era grants derived from English forms, or in historical treatises discussing English land law. It carries no modern operative significance in any jurisdiction.

LESWESmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

Pastures. Domesday; Co. Litt. 4b. A term often inserted in old deeds and conveyances. Cowell. LET, v. In conveyancing. To demise or lease. “To let and set” is an old expression. In practice. To deliver. “To let to bail’ is to deliver to bail on arrest. In contracts. To award to one of several persons, who have submitted proposals therefor, the contract for erecting public works or doing some part of the work connected therewith, or rendering some other service to government for a stipulated coimpensation. Letting the contract is the choosing one from among the number of bidders. and the formal making of the contract with him. The letting, or putting out, is a different thing from the invitation to make proposals; the letting is subsequent to the invitation. It is the act of awarding the contract to the proposer, after the proposais have been received and considered. See Eppes v. Railroad Co., 35 Ala. 33, 90. In the language of judicial orders and decrees, the word “let” (in the imperative) imports a positive direction or command, Thus the phrase “let the writ issue as prayed” is equivalent to “it is hereby ordered that the writ issue,” etc. See Ingram Vv. Laroussini, 50 La. Am. G9, 23 South. 498. LET, n. In old conveyancing. Hindrance ; obstruction; interruption. Still occasionally used in the phrase “without any le?, suit, trouble,” ete.