Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "pledged" or "under pledge." Used in early English legal texts to indicate that a person or thing was bound by a pledge — a surety or security arrangement by which a party guaranteed appearance, performance, or payment. The term functions as a past participle in the Law French legal vocabulary, equivalent to the Latin *pignoratus* or *obligatus* in analogous contexts.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *plevys* will find it almost exclusively in medieval and early English legal sources, particularly in treatises and Year Books predating the displacement of Law French from formal legal writing. Britton, the 13th-century English legal treatise attributed to John le Breton, is the primary source in which the term appears, and the Burrill citation to chapter 12 of that work is the most direct anchor for the term's usage.
The key research trap is misreading *plevys* as a noun when it operates as an adjectival or participial form — it describes a state of obligation or security rather than naming the pledge instrument itself. The underlying concept connects to the broader family of pledge and surety vocabulary in medieval common law, including *plevin*, *replevin*, and *mainprise*, all of which share the root of pledging or delivering a security.
Researchers working in early English property law, criminal law procedure, or suretyship will encounter this term embedded in passages describing whether a defendant has been released on pledge or whether goods are held under security. Because the term appears in Law French, it may be transliterated inconsistently across manuscript sources and later printed editions. Variant spellings should be anticipated.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only entry among the standard historical legal dictionaries. The entry is minimal — "Pledged; under pledge. Britt. c. 12." — but it is precise. Burrill correctly identifies the Law French origin and the participial sense. No additional commentary or elaboration appears in Burrill, which is consistent with his treatment of Law French terms that had no continuing common law life by the 19th century.
The absence of entries in Bouvier, Black, or other standard dictionaries confirms that *plevys* was already a purely antiquarian term by the time those dictionaries were compiled. Its value is historical and textual rather than doctrinal.