Definition
Quite clamaunce (also rendered *quiteclamaunce*, *quite-clamance*, and in fuller form *quitclaim*) is an archaic Law French term meaning a formal release or relinquishment of a claim, right, or interest. In medieval English legal practice, it referred to a deed or instrument by which a person renounced or discharged any claim they held — or might hold — against another party, typically in relation to land. The term is the direct ancestor of the modern *quitclaim deed*, which carries forward the essential function: a grantor conveys whatever interest they possess without warranting the title or making representations about the validity of that interest.
The concept is closely related to the broader medieval practice of *fine* (a fictitious suit used to settle and record land transactions), in which quite clamaunce formed one of the operative words by which a party surrendered their rights. Britton, the thirteenth-century legal treatise, references the term in the context of releases and agreements between parties to a fine.
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Common Confusion
QUITE CLAMAUNCE and QUITCLAIM are not separate legal concepts — they are the same concept across a linguistic and temporal gap. Quite clamaunce is the Law French antecedent; quitclaim is the anglicized descendant. Researchers encountering quite clamaunce in medieval or early modern sources should treat it as functionally equivalent to a quitclaim, while remaining alert to differences in the procedural contexts in which each term operated. Additionally, quite clamaunce should not be confused with a general release (*release* being a broader instrument), nor with a warranty deed, which makes affirmative guarantees about title that quite clamaunce explicitly does not.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs almost entirely to the historical stratum of the Law Mind corpus. Researchers will encounter it in pre-modern English sources — Year Books, plea rolls, early treatises such as Britton and Bracton, and records of the Court of Common Pleas — but it will not appear in modern statutory or case law under this spelling. Its research value is primarily interpretive: when reading medieval conveyancing instruments or fines, recognizing quite clamaunce as the operative release language is essential to understanding what rights were being transferred or surrendered.
The fragmentary Burrill entry — truncated to "Quit-" — signals that the term was being cross-referenced to the fuller *quitclaim* discussion, which is itself evidence of how nineteenth-century American legal lexicographers treated the Law French forms: as historical curiosities giving way to anglicized equivalents. Researchers using Burrill should follow the cross-reference to the quitclaim entry for substantive treatment.
One navigational trap: the spelling varies considerably across historical sources. Forms include *quitemaunce*, *quiteclamance*, *quieteclamance*, and *quyte clamaunce*. Corpus searches using a single spelling will miss variant forms. Wildcard or fuzzy search strategies are advisable when working with medieval sources.
The connection to the encyclopedia entry on voluntary quits and employment disqualification is nominal at best — that modern usage of "quit" shares etymology but no legal lineage with quite clamaunce. Researchers should not infer any substantive relationship between the medieval conveyancing term and modern employment law concepts involving voluntary separation from employment.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary identifies quite clamaunce as Law French and cites Britton, chapter 85, before breaking off with "Quit-", indicating the entry was designed to direct readers to the quitclaim entry for full treatment. This truncation is itself instructive: by the mid-nineteenth century, the Law French form had receded sufficiently that Burrill treated it as a historical pointer rather than a live term requiring independent definition.
Older English legal lexicographers — Cowell's *Interpreter*, Blount's *Nomo-Lexicon*, and Jacob's *Law Dictionary* — give fuller treatment to the term and its variants, situating it within the law of fines and the conveyancing practice of medieval courts. These sources confirm that quite clamaunce was the standard release language in a fine, by which the deforciant (the party defending in the fictitious suit) surrendered their claim to the complainant. Modern legal dictionaries have largely abandoned the term in favor of quitclaim, reflecting the complete displacement of Law French terminology from practice.
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Jurisdictional Note
Quite clamaunce as an operative legal term is specific to the English common law tradition and has no direct equivalent in civilian jurisdictions. Its descendant concept, the quitclaim deed, survives in American property law but not in English law, where land registration has substantially displaced traditional deed-based conveyancing.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The nominal connection to Disqualification — Misconduct, Voluntary Quit, and Refusal of Suitable Work (The Law Mind Employment & Labor Law Encyclopedia) reflects only etymological overlap, not substantive legal relationship. No direct cross-reference is warranted for research purposes.
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