Definition
In old English law, a poulterer — that is, a dealer in poultry and game birds. The term appears in medieval Latin legal texts governing the regulation of traders and victuallers operating within English markets and towns.
Why It Matters in Research
Poletarius is a highly specialized term of medieval legal Latin encountered almost exclusively in early English legal treatises, particularly in the context of market regulation, trade licensing, and the assize of provisions. Researchers working in pre-modern English legal history — especially records touching on guild organization, market courts, or the regulation of food trades — may encounter this term in Latin-language sources without any vernacular gloss. Because it has no modern legal survival, it will not appear in contemporary legal dictionaries or statutory compilations. The primary source context is Fleta, a late thirteenth-century legal treatise written in the tradition of Bracton, which categorizes various tradespeople subject to legal oversight. A researcher encountering poletarius in a manuscript or transcribed record should treat it as a marker for the broader regulatory framework governing victuallers in medieval English law — a framework that also touched the assize of bread and ale, market tolls, and forestalling offenses. Cross-referencing entries on victuallers, market regulation, and the assize system will typically yield the surrounding legal context that poletarius alone does not supply.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole historical legal dictionary treatment identified for this term. Burrill's entry is brief but precise: "L. Lat. In old English law. A poulterer. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 14, § 3." This is characteristic of Burrill's handling of narrow medieval Latin trade terms — he supplies the definition and the primary source reference without elaboration. No equivalent entry appears in Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, or Black's Law Dictionary, reflecting how thoroughly this term dropped out of legal usage after the medieval period. The Fleta citation is genuine: Fleta is a Latin legal treatise composed around 1290, likely during the reign of Edward I, and its second book addresses the duties and regulation of various officers and tradespeople. Burrill's entry neither overstates the term's importance nor situates it within the broader victualler regulatory scheme, leaving researchers to pursue that context through the Fleta text directly.
Jurisdictional Note
Poletarius is exclusively a term of old English law. It has no cognate usage in Scots law, canon law, or civil law traditions as a legal term of art, and it did not migrate into American legal usage.