Definition
Nattvus (also rendered *nativus*) is a Latin term from old English law denoting a native — specifically, a person born into a condition of servitude. In feudal legal usage, a nattvus was a born serf or villein: an unfree person whose status as bondsman derived from birth rather than contract or conquest. The term anchors a cluster of related concepts distinguishing how servile status was acquired and transmitted.
Sub-definitions for recognized forms:
1. Nattvus (general): A male person born into villeinage; a bondsman by nativity.
2. Nativa: The feminine form, denoting a niefe — a female villein or bondwoman. Coke's *Littleton* notes the term derived from the fact that such women were "for the most part bond by nativity." Co. Litt. 122b.
3. Nativi conventionarii: Villeins or bondmen by contract or agreement — those whose servile status arose through express arrangement rather than birth.
4. Nativi de stipite: Villeins or bondmen by birth or stock — those whose status was inherited through lineage. Cowell's *Interpreter* is the source most commonly cited for this sub-form.
5. Nativitas: The abstract noun denoting villeinage itself — the legal state or condition of being a nattvus.
Common Confusion
Modern readers may conflate nattvus with the Roman law concept of *servus* (slave) or with the later common law term "villein." The distinctions matter. A Roman *servus* was property in a fuller chattel sense. A villein in English feudal law occupied a more complex position: bound to the land and lord, yet possessed of certain legal protections against third parties. Nattvus specifically emphasizes the mode of acquisition — birth — and is most precisely used in contrast to nativi conventionarii, who became bondsmen by agreement. Researchers who encounter nattvus in medieval records should not automatically read it as equivalent to Roman slavery or to all forms of villeinage.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
— Nativa (female villein / niefe)
— Nativi conventionarii (bondmen by contract)
— Nativi de stipite (bondmen by birth/stock)
— Nativitas (the condition of villeinage itself)
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in medieval English legal records — manor court rolls, plea rolls, and early treatises — and is rarely encountered after the decline of villeinage in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Researchers working in feudal land law, manorial records, or the history of personal status will find nattvus and its cognates essential for reading primary sources correctly.
Several navigational points are worth noting:
First, spelling is unstable in manuscript sources. You will encounter nativus, nattvus, natiuus, and abbreviated forms. Do not treat variant spellings as distinct terms.
Second, the distinction between nativi de stipite and nativi conventionarii was legally significant in disputes over villein status: proof of birth from villein stock was the standard method of establishing servile condition, while contractual villeinage was rarer and followed different evidentiary rules.
Third, nativa (the niefe) has its own doctrinal history. A niefe who married a free man did not automatically become free; the law governing her status and that of her children was contested and evolved over time. Researchers tracing female status in medieval English law should treat nativa as a distinct research thread.
Fourth, nativitas shades into the broader concept of villeinage and overlaps with terms like bondage, serfdom, and rusticity in historical sources. Different treatise writers used these terms with varying precision. Black's 2nd edition entry trails off mid-sentence in the available source text for nativitas, suggesting the corpus copy is incomplete; researchers should verify against fuller editions of Black's and against Cowell's *Interpreter* directly.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed., Supplemental) is the sole source dictionary available for this entry. Its treatment is compact but reliable in structure: it correctly identifies nattvus as a term of old English law, distinguishes the male and female forms, and cross-references the sub-forms with appropriate sources — Coke's *Littleton* for nativa and Cowell for nativi de stipite.
The entry's attribution of nativa to Coke's *Littleton* at 122b is specific and credible. Cowell's *Interpreter* (1607, with later editions) is the standard early-modern glossary for feudal and Anglo-Latin legal terms, and its authority on nativi de stipite is well-placed.
What historical dictionaries of this period often miss is the practical procedural dimension: how courts actually determined whether a person was a nattvus, what evidence sufficed, and how the writ *de nativo habendo* operated to recover an escaped villein. These procedural dimensions are not captured in definitional dictionaries and require recourse to Bracton, Britton, and the Year Books.
Jurisdictional Note
Nattvus and its cognates are terms of English feudal law specifically. They have no direct counterpart in Scottish, Irish, or Continental legal systems, which developed their own distinct vocabularies for servile status. Researchers working in comparative medieval law should treat English villeinage and Continental serfdom as parallel but non-identical institutions.