MON

Definition

"Mon" does not function as a recognized legal term in English or American law. The entries tagged to this term in the historical source dictionaries are mislabeled fragments: Bouvier's entry describes the loss of a right of common (more properly treated under "extinguishment of common" or "unity of possession"), while Burrill's entries address two unrelated concepts — a *modus* (a prescription exempting land from tithes) and *monasterium* (a monastery or church under ecclesiastical law). No independent legal definition of "mon" as a standalone term is supported by the source material.

Common Confusion

Do not confuse the headword "mon" in these dictionaries with the Japanese term *mon* (family badge or former currency unit), which has no legal significance in English or American law. The Wiktionary definition of *mon* as a Japanese heraldic emblem or monetary unit is entirely unrelated to either fragment in the historical legal sources.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering "mon" as a dictionary headword in historical sources should treat it as an indexing artifact, not a substantive legal concept. The Bouvier and Burrill entries appear to be truncated or misalphabetized fragments of longer entries — likely portions of entries for "MONMENT" or abbreviations of "MONASTERY," "MODUS," or related terms beginning with those letters. If your research led you here, the substantive concepts are almost certainly found under the following distinct headings: — Loss of right of common: Search under EXTINGUISHMENT OF COMMON, UNITY OF POSSESSION, or APPROVEMENT. The Bouvier fragment references approvement (the lord's right to enclose common land) and release as modes of extinguishment — both well-developed doctrines in English property law with significant historical depth in the Law Mind corpus. — Modus (tithe prescription): Search under MODUS DECIMANDI or TITHES. Burrill's fragment, citing Blackstone's Commentaries Book II at page 31, describes a prescription by which a landowner claimed total discharge from tithes without compensation — a distinct and historically contested application of the modus doctrine that Blackstone and Chitty both flagged as technically inaccurate. — Monasterium: Search under MONASTERY, ECCLESIASTICAL LAW, or MORTMAIN. The ecclesiastical sense of "mon" as a shortened Latin form for a church or monastery is documented in Spelman's Glossary and has relevance to historical land tenure, especially pre-Reformation grants and mortmain restrictions.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier and Burrill do not agree on what "mon" means — because neither is actually defining the same thing. Bouvier's fragment addresses property law; Burrill's addresses ecclesiastical law and then ecclesiastical institutions. This divergence is a product of the entries being pulled from different alphabetical positions or different sub-entries, not a genuine doctrinal split. Burrill explicitly notes that applying "modus" to describe a prescription for complete tithe exemption is "very reasonably objected to, as inaccurate," citing Chitty's edition of Blackstone. This editorial flag is worth preserving: researchers relying on older sources for tithe-exemption doctrine should be alert to the contested use of modus in this context. Neither dictionary entry provides a self-contained doctrine. Both require the researcher to follow the cross-references provided in the original sources (Coke on Littleton, Blackstone's Commentaries, and Spelman's Glossary) to reach the substantive law.

Related Terms