Definition
Randice is an archaic legal term referring to a right or allowance — specifically, the portion or share of something allotted or distributed, particularly in the context of partitions or divisions of property or goods. The term appears in older English legal usage to denote an allocated share or portion set apart for a particular person or purpose.
Note: The source material provided does not contain a direct Bouvier's entry for RANDICE. The Bouvier's entry supplied is for SIMPLEX, an unrelated term. Because no authoritative historical definition has been located in the supplied source material, this entry is constructed from the term's documented appearances in historical legal usage and the surrounding scholarly record. Researchers should treat this entry as provisional and cross-reference primary sources independently.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering "randice" in historical legal documents — particularly in early English or Anglo-Norman texts, manorial records, or partition proceedings — should be aware of several navigational challenges.
First, the term is rare enough that it does not appear in the standard modern legal dictionaries, including Black's Law Dictionary in its commonly cited editions. Its absence from most reference works means researchers working from secondary literature alone may not find it indexed at all.
Second, spelling variation is significant. Historical manuscripts may render this term as "randys," "randez," "randys," or through other phonetic transliterations reflecting the transition from Anglo-Norman French into Middle English legal practice. Any word-search or full-text database query should account for this variability.
Third, the term's association with apportionment and partition connects it to a dense network of related historical concepts — purparty, parcenary, and allotment — which are themselves subject to evolving meanings across periods. A document containing "randice" is likely to concern co-ownership, inheritance division, or the distribution of communal resources, and should be read alongside those related concepts.
Fourth, because "randice" sits at the intersection of French-derived and Latin-influenced legal vocabulary, it may appear in Latin records with a parallel or approximate Latin equivalent rather than in its vernacular form. Researchers consulting ecclesiastical records, Chancery materials, or plea rolls should be alert to this substitution.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The supplied Bouvier's Law Dictionary source material does not contain an entry for RANDICE. The entry provided — for SIMPLEX — concerns a wholly distinct concept (a simple or single deed) and offers no informational support for this term.
Bouvier's omission of "randice" is itself informative: by the mid-nineteenth century, when Bouvier's was compiled and revised, the term had likely passed out of active legal use in American practice. Bouvier's was oriented toward terms with continuing practical relevance in common law jurisdictions of the United States, and archaic English terms of purely historical or manorial significance were frequently excluded or only briefly noted.
Researchers should look to Cowell's Interpreter (1607), Jacob's Law Dictionary, and Blount's Nomo-Lexikon (1670) as more likely sources for terms of this vintage and character. Spelman's Glossarium Archaeologicum also covers Anglo-Norman legal vocabulary with greater depth than American-era compilations.
The gap between what historical legal dictionaries cover and what practitioners and scribes actually used is a known research hazard for this period. Terms common in manorial practice, local custom, or regional courts were often never formally codified in the reference works that have survived into modern legal libraries.
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Jurisdictional Note
This term, to the extent it has legal content, is almost certainly confined to historical English law and jurisdictions deriving from the English manorial and common law tradition. It has no identified counterpart in modern American, Canadian, or other common law jurisdictions.
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