Definition
To claim kindred; to assert a relationship of kinship or family connection. The term appears in early English legal usage to describe a formal assertion of blood relationship, typically in contexts where kinship determined rights, obligations, or standing—such as succession, inheritance, or the feudal duties owed among relatives.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow archaism of Anglo-Norman or medieval Latin legal origin, appearing almost exclusively in historical glossaries rather than in primary legal texts. Researchers encountering NEGGILDARE in period sources should treat it as a term of art specific to early English law governing kinship claims, distinct from modern concepts of standing or privity based on family relationship.
The principal trap in historical research is the corruption of the source entry in Rapalje & Lawrence: the printed text runs NEGGILDARE's definition directly into an unrelated discussion of the evidentiary rule that a negative cannot generally be proved by witnesses (citing to 2 Inst. 662 and related cases). This is a typographical or editorial artifact of the printed dictionary—the material beginning with "NEGATIVE" is a separate entry entirely and has no substantive connection to NEGGILDARE. Researchers working from scanned or imperfectly digitized versions of Rapalje & Lawrence should be alert to this run-on and not treat the negative-evidence discussion as part of the definition of this term.
Because the term surfaces primarily in glossaries that themselves cite back to Jacob's Law Dictionary, the chain of authority is short and the independent verification sparse. Do not treat its appearance in Bouvier or Rapalje & Lawrence as evidence of wide common-law usage; both sources are almost certainly tracing a single lineage through Jacob.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Rapalje & Lawrence are in complete agreement on the substance: NEGGILDARE means to claim kindred, with both citing Jacob's Law Dictionary as the authority. Neither source expands on the procedural context in which such a claim would arise, the form it would take, or the consequences of a successful or failed assertion of kindred. The definition is transmitted rather than analyzed.
Jacob's Law Dictionary (the ultimate cited source) sits behind both entries as the originating text for this term in the English legal glossary tradition. Researchers seeking deeper context would need to consult Jacob directly, and even there the entry is likely brief.
Neither source addresses whether the term carried specific procedural weight—whether neggildare was a formal plea, a verbal act with legal effect, or merely a descriptive label for any assertion of family connection. Given the feudal and early common-law context in which kinship claims carried concrete legal significance (affecting tenure, wardship, inheritance, and liability for a kinsman's debts or offenses), the term likely had operational meaning in that period even if the surviving glossary entries do not reconstruct it in detail.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is specific to early English law. It has no recognized counterpart or usage in American, Scottish, or continental legal traditions.