Definition
An obsolete term from old English law, appearing in Law French, denoting mast — specifically the mast of trees, meaning the fruit or nuts (such as acorns and beechnuts) that fall from forest trees and serve as fodder for swine. The term is closely associated with pannage rights and the law of the forest. It appears in Britton (c. 21, 24, 72) and is considered archaic even within historical legal sources.
Common Confusion
PESSON should not be confused with the vessel or navigational term "mast." In this legal context, "mast" refers not to a ship's spar but to the fallen fruit of forest trees — a meaning that survives in phrases like "beech mast." The two senses are entirely unrelated, and researchers encountering "mast" in forest law contexts must recognize the arboricultural meaning. See also PESSONA, which Burrill identifies as the cognate form and which may appear in variant spellings across manuscript sources.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in early English forest law materials, particularly in the Britton manuscripts. Researchers working with medieval forest law, pannage rights, or rights of common will encounter PESSON and its variant PESSONA in contexts governing the seasonal feeding of pigs on fallen forest mast — a practice with significant economic and legal weight in the medieval English economy.
The primary research trap is orthographic: Law French terms from this period vary widely in spelling across manuscripts and printed editions. PESSON may appear as pessona, paisson, paison, or similar forms depending on the scribe and the edition consulted. Burrill's cross-reference to PESSONA signals that these are variants of the same concept, and researchers should search under multiple spellings when working with primary sources or manuscript editions of Britton.
Additionally, this term belongs to a cluster of forest law vocabulary — pannage, mast, herbage, agistment — that operates as an interconnected system. A researcher encountering PESSON in isolation risks misreading its significance without understanding the broader framework of common rights in the royal forest. The rights associated with pesson were typically seasonal, regulated, and subject to forfeiture, which gave rise to distinct legal disputes and forest court proceedings.
Modern legal dictionaries do not carry this term. Its presence is a reliable indicator that a source is either pre-modern or is directly quoting or translating from a medieval original.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only dictionary support identified in the Law Mind corpus. The entry is minimal — identifying the term as Law French, glossing it as "mast," and directing readers to both Britton and the variant entry PESSONA. Burrill does not elaborate on the legal incidents of pesson or the rights it governed, treating it as a defined term requiring cross-reference rather than independent analysis.
The brevity of the Burrill entry is itself informative: by the time of Burrill's compilation, the term had no living legal application and survived only as a historicism useful for reading medieval texts. No substantive divergence between historical dictionary sources is identifiable here because no other shelf source carries the term.
The Britton citations (chapters 21, 24, and 72) remain the primary authority, and researchers requiring substantive analysis of pesson in operation should consult Britton directly, along with scholarship on the medieval English forest law system.
Jurisdictional Note
PESSON is specific to the English common law tradition and has no equivalent application in American law. It is relevant only in historical research contexts dealing with medieval and early modern English forest law.