Definition
A sum paid per diem to the person placed in possession of goods seized under a writ of fieri facias. When a sheriff levied execution on a debtor's property, he was required to appoint someone—sometimes called a possession man or walking possession officer—to remain with or watch over the seized goods until they could be sold or otherwise disposed of. That custodian was entitled to a daily fee for the service, and that fee was termed possession money.
In historical English practice, the rate was fixed: 3 shillings and 6 pence per day if the possession man was boarded (i.e., fed and housed at the debtor's expense), or 5 shillings per day if he was not boarded. The fee was a recoverable cost of execution, not a gratuitous payment.
Common Confusion
Possession money is sometimes loosely associated with poundage, but the two are distinct charges. Poundage is a percentage-based fee paid to the sheriff calculated on the value of goods seized or money recovered under execution. Possession money is a flat daily rate paid specifically to the custodian placed in actual physical charge of the goods. A researcher conflating the two will misread cost schedules in historical execution proceedings. Rapalje & Lawrence cross-references both terms together for this reason.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow term of English procedural practice with no direct American counterpart. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in:
— English case law and procedural treatises from the 18th and 19th centuries dealing with execution of judgments;
— Historical cost schedules and sheriffs' fee tables appended to English statutes or court rules;
— American cases discussing English common law execution procedure by analogy, particularly in early republic-era decisions before American states developed their own execution frameworks.
The term is essentially dormant in modern legal writing. If it appears in a document, the document is almost certainly English in origin or heavily influenced by English practice of the fieri facias era. Modern American execution procedure distributes no equivalent custodial fee under this name, though some states have analogous provisions for keeper fees in levy practice.
The Rapalje & Lawrence citation to Sneary v. Abdy, 1 Ex. D. 299, is the most useful anchor for researchers needing a case-law treatment of possession money as a recoverable execution cost. A researcher working through historical English sheriff's office records or post-judgment cost disputes will find possession money itemized alongside poundage in the bill of costs.
One navigational trap: the phrase "possession money" occasionally appears in modern housing and landlord-tenant contexts in some jurisdictions to mean a sum paid to induce a tenant to vacate, which is entirely unrelated to this execution-practice meaning. Context should resolve the ambiguity quickly, but the researcher should not assume continuity of meaning across centuries or practice areas.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree on the core definition: possession money is the daily allowance paid to the person placed in possession of goods under a writ of fieri facias. The unanimity reflects that this was a settled, technical term in English practice with little doctrinal dispute.
Black's Law Dictionary provides the most granular rate information, quoting the two-tiered daily fee (3s. 6d. boarded, 5s. unboarded) attributed to Brown's law dictionary. Bouvier's and Burrill's both cite Holthouse's legal dictionary and are nearly identical in formulation, suggesting a common source. Rapalje & Lawrence adds the most research value by supplying the Sneary v. Abdy citation and cross-referencing poundage—the only source among the four to point the reader to a reported case.
What the historical dictionaries collectively omit: any discussion of how or whether American jurisdictions adopted, modified, or discarded the concept. Their silence on American practice is itself informative; by the time these dictionaries were compiled, possession money as a term of art had largely remained English rather than crossing the Atlantic as operative law.
Jurisdictional Note
Possession money is a term of English procedural law with no standardized American equivalent. American states regulate levy and execution costs through their own statutes, and modern keeper or custodian fees—where they exist—are governed by local court rules or sheriff's fee schedules rather than any doctrine tracing to this term. Researchers working in pre-20th century American sources should treat any appearance of possession money as a reference to the English practice.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No entry in the Law Mind Encyclopedia directly addresses historical execution procedure or fieri facias practice. The matching entries identified (Drug Possession, Money Laundering, Weapons Offenses — Unlawful Possession) address criminal law concepts sharing incidental vocabulary but are substantively unrelated to this term. No encyclopedia cross-reference is warranted.