Definition
An Old French (Law French) term meaning "the same." Used in medieval English legal records, pleadings, and registers to indicate identity or repetition — that a thing, person, or condition referred to is the same as one previously mentioned. Frequently contracted to the abbreviation "m." in manuscript sources and printed registers. The term appears almost exclusively in archaic legal texts; it has no active role in modern legal usage.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research challenge with *mesme* is recognizing it when encountered. Researchers working with medieval English plea rolls, registers of original writs, or early Year Books will find the term (or its contraction *m.*) used as a shorthand reference within a document, functioning much like "idem" in Latin sources. The contraction *m.* can be easily overlooked or misread, particularly in manuscript contexts where minuscule letterforms and abbreviation marks are common. When the full form *mesme* appears, researchers unfamiliar with Law French vocabulary may not immediately identify it as the equivalent of "same" — a word with significant legal function when questions of identity, continuity of parties, or prior pleading are at issue.
The related term *mesnalty* (or *mesnality*) appears in the same Law French register and refers to the estate or right of a mesne lord — a structurally distinct concept. Burrill links the two terms in sequence, but researchers should be careful not to conflate them. *Mesme* is a particle of reference; *mesnalty* is a substantive property law term.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the authoritative historical entry for this term in the Law Mind corpus. Burrill defines *mesme* concisely as "the same" and notes the common contraction to *m.*, citing *Reg. Orig. 17, nota* — a reference to the *Registrum Omnium Brevium* (Register of Writs), a foundational source for medieval English procedure. This citation grounds the term firmly in the writ-based practice of the English common law courts.
No other dictionary in the present corpus offers a separate entry. The term is characteristic of a broader family of Law French particles (compare *autrefoits*, *puis*, *nient*) that structured pleading and record-keeping in medieval English courts. Historical dictionaries more broadly — including Jacob's *Law Dictionary* and Tomlin's *Law Dictionary* — treat Law French vocabulary unevenly, and minor particles like *mesme* are often omitted entirely from general legal dictionaries even of the historical period. Burrill's attention to the contraction and the citation to the Register of Writs makes his treatment unusually useful for manuscript researchers.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the English common law tradition and its courts of record during the Law French period (roughly the 13th through 17th centuries). It has no equivalent usage in civil law jurisdictions or in Scots law sources.