Definition
Peison is an archaic legal term from Law French (derived from Latin *pessona*) denoting mast — the general collective name for the natural produce of forest trees, including acorns, nuts, and similar fallen fruit. The term encompasses the edible output of oak, beech, chestnut, and related trees that was historically gathered or used as fodder, particularly for swine.
Why It Matters in Research
Peison appears almost exclusively in medieval and early common law sources, and researchers are unlikely to encounter it outside of Anglo-Norman legal texts or treatises drawing directly from that tradition. Its practical importance lies in the law of forest rights and common of mast — the customary right to drive pigs into woodland to feed on fallen acorns and nuts. When reading historical documents concerning manorial rights, forest law, or common rights, peison may appear as the subject of grants, disputes, or regulations without further explanation. Modern secondary sources rarely gloss the term, so researchers working with primary sources from the medieval and early modern periods should treat it as a commodity term of art tied to the broader framework of English forest and common law. It does not appear to have carried over into any modern legal usage.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal source confirming peison as a Law French term with the Latin equivalent *pessona*, glossed simply as "mast" and supported by a citation to Britton, chapter 55. Britton, the late thirteenth-century English legal treatise written in Law French and attributed to John le Breton, is one of the foundational sources for this class of terminology, and Burrill's reliance on it is characteristic of his method for archaic Norman terms. Other major historical legal dictionaries — including Jacob's Law Dictionary and Tomlin's Law Dictionary — address "mast" and "common of mast" as doctrinal categories but do not appear to use the term peison itself, suggesting Burrill drew directly from the Britton text where the Law French form was preserved. The term is narrow and technical; historical sources that do engage with it treat it as a synonym for mast rather than a distinct legal concept with its own doctrinal content.
Jurisdictional Note
Peison is a term of English law only, rooted in the Anglo-Norman legal tradition. It has no recognized equivalent or usage in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions.