Definition
Meremium is a Latin term used in old English and Scots law to denote timber — specifically, wood suitable for building or structural use. The term appears in medieval forest charters and legal records as part of the vocabulary governing rights to take wood from forests or common lands. It is closely associated with companion terms covering other forest products, including brushwood (busca), bark (cortex), and charcoal (carbo).
The term is not a word of art with technical legal weight of its own; rather, it functions as a descriptive term within broader grants, charters, and forest regulations that defined what a holder of forest rights was permitted to take. Its significance lies in what it included or excluded when a right of estovers or similar forest privilege was being interpreted.
Common Confusion
Meremium is frequently encountered alongside its corrupted form merennum (also spelled merennium), which appears in old records and was identified by Cowell as a variant spelling rather than a distinct legal term. Researchers encountering either form in historical documents should treat them as referring to the same concept. The root also appears as mæremium, the spelling favored in some Anglo-Latin texts, and as meresme or mereme in Law French sources. These variants reflect scribal and linguistic drift rather than any substantive legal distinction.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in English or Scots forest law, manorial records, or medieval property documents will encounter meremium as part of clusters of forest-right terminology. The term rarely stands alone; it is typically paired with busca, cortex, carbo, or similar words enumerating the scope of a grant. When interpreting a charter or conveyance, the presence or absence of meremium in an enumeration can bear directly on whether standing timber (as opposed to fallen wood or brushwood) was included in a grant of estovers or similar rights.
The connection to Carta de Foresta (Forest Charter) cited by Burrill — specifically chapter 14 — places meremium within the regulatory framework that defined Crown and subject rights in English forests from the thirteenth century onward. Researchers tracing the history of timber rights, waste, or estovers should treat that charter as a primary anchor document when meremium appears.
In Scots law materials, Skene's De Verborum Significatione is the principal lexicographic source. Researchers using Scottish records should consult Skene alongside Burrill, as Scots usage may carry slightly different contextual weight than English usage.
The corrupted form merennum presents an indexing hazard in manuscript and early printed sources. Full-text searches of digitized records that rely on a single spelling will miss variant forms. Researchers should run parallel searches across meremium, merennum, merennium, maeremium, meresme, and mereme to ensure completeness.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary English-language legal dictionary source for this term. Burrill defines it plainly as "timber" and correctly identifies the Law French root forms (meresme, mereme), the Scots legal authority (Skene), and the Forest Charter reference. He also cross-references mæremium and identifies merennum as a corruption.
The entry in Burrill is brief, as fits a term that is essentially a label for a physical commodity rather than a legal concept with independent doctrinal content. No significant divergence across historical sources has been identified for this term; its meaning is stable and narrow. What historical dictionaries collectively do not address — and what researchers should supply from primary sources — is the practical interpretive question of how courts or conveyancers distinguished meremium from related categories of forest product when rights were disputed.
Jurisdictional Note
Meremium appears in both English and Scots legal records. Its practical context differs: in English law it operates within the forest law and common law of estovers; in Scots law it appears in similar property and charter contexts glossed by Skene. Researchers should not assume that a definition from one jurisdiction transfers without verification to the other.