Definition
Mainour is a term from early English criminal law referring to stolen goods found in the hands or immediate possession of the thief at or near the time of apprehension. The phrase "taken with the mainour" — derived from the Latin *in manu* (in hand) — described the circumstance of catching a thief red-handed, with the stolen article still on his person. In this context, mainour was not merely evidence of theft; it was the defining fact that warranted immediate arrest and summary proceeding without the formality otherwise required.
A secondary and distinct usage, flagged in Bouvier, distinguishes **MAINOVER** or **MAINŒUVRE** — a trespass committed by hand. This is a separate legal concept that shares only the etymological root and should not be conflated with mainour in the theft sense.
---
Common Confusion
The word "mainour" appears in historical sources written variously as "mainour," "mainover," "manner," and occasionally "manour." Blackstone noted that in modern law the term had sometimes been anglicized to "manner," producing the phrase "taken in the manner" — a corruption that survives in the expression "caught in the act." Researchers encountering "manner" in older case law or commentary may be looking at a transliteration of mainour, not a reference to method or procedure. Separately, Bouvier distinguishes mainour (stolen goods in hand) from mainover (a trespass committed by hand); these are cognate terms with different legal meanings that historical sources sometimes run together.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Mainour is primarily a term of historical English criminal law and will appear most often in pre-nineteenth-century sources, treatises on common law procedure, and early American materials that drew on English practice. Researchers should be alert to several traps:
**Spelling variation is significant.** The term appears as "mainour," "mainover," "manner," and "manour" across different texts and periods. A keyword search on any single spelling will miss substantial material. The anglicized "manner" form is particularly easy to overlook because it reads as an ordinary English word in surrounding text.
**The procedural consequence is the point.** Mainour was not simply descriptive; it triggered a specific legal consequence — the right to arrest without prior warrant or formal accusation. In the older common law framework, being taken with the mainour justified what would otherwise be irregular summary action. Researchers examining the history of warrantless arrest, hot pursuit doctrine, or the development of probable cause standards will find mainour relevant as a precursor concept.
**Handhabend is the Saxon parallel.** Black's notes the correspondence with the Saxon term *handhabend*, meaning one taken with the stolen goods in hand. Sources treating Saxon or early Norman criminal procedure may use this term where later sources use mainour. Both refer to the same core concept.
**The trespass meaning is a distinct research thread.** Bouvier's mainover/mainœuvre — trespass by hand — appears in an entirely different procedural and substantive context. Conflating the two in a research trail will produce false leads.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
The three historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus handle this term with notable consistency on the core meaning but reveal some instructive gaps.
Black's (both editions) and Bouvier agree that mainour means stolen goods found in the possession of the thief, and all cite or reference the common law principle that such discovery authorized immediate arrest. Black's draws directly on Blackstone's *Commentaries* (4 Bl. Comm. 307) for the Latin root and the anglicization to "manner." Bouvier adds the cross-reference to larceny and separately flags mainover as a trespass by hand, distinguishing the two terms more clearly than Black's does.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the procedural mechanics in any depth — the specific circumstances under which mainour arrest was permitted, what happened afterward, or how the doctrine evolved or disappeared as formal warrant requirements developed. Researchers seeking that procedural history will need to look beyond the dictionary shelf to Blackstone, Hale's *Pleas of the Crown*, and historical treatises on criminal procedure.
There is also a stray fragment in Black's (1st ed.) that appears to describe a payment by parishioners to a rector in lieu of small tithes — an entirely different entry that seems to be a typographical artifact or misfiled definition in the source material. This fragment does not correspond to any recognized meaning of mainour and should be disregarded.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Mainour is a term of English common law origin. It carried into early American law through treatises and common law reception statutes but is not a term of art in modern American statutory criminal law. Its practical significance today is as a historical antecedent to the warrantless arrest doctrine rather than as operative legal terminology.
---