REPRISES

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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REPRISESAuthored
The Law Mind • 1040 words
Definition
Annual deductions, charges, and payments that are taken out of a manor or parcel of land before the clear (net) yearly value of that land can be stated. Reprises include recurring obligations such as rent-charges, rents seek, pensions, corrodies, and annuities that encumber an estate and must be paid out regardless of the owner's use or enjoyment of the property. The phrase ultra reprises (or ultra reprisas) — meaning "beyond all reprises" or "above all reprises" — is the standard formula used in conveyancing and valuation to express the net annual value of an estate after all such encumbrances have been subtracted. When a manor or freehold is described as yielding a certain sum per annum ultra reprises, that sum represents what remains after every standing charge on the land has been honored. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Reprises" is the plural of reprise, meaning a repetition or return of an earlier musical passage or theme; also used loosely to mean any resumption or repeat of a prior event. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Reprise carries the general sense of taking back or retaking, as well as the musical sense of repetition. Editorial note: The legal meaning of reprises connects to the root concept of "taking back" — these are sums literally taken back out of gross income before the owner receives the remainder — but the term bears no relationship to its modern musical or colloquial sense. A researcher encountering reprises in a historical deed or valuation document should not import any common-language connotation; the term is purely a term of art in property and conveyancing law. ---
Common Confusion
Reprises (property charges) should not be confused with reprisals (acts of retaliation between nations or parties). Bouvier's Law Dictionary treats both terms in proximity, and the Latin root reprehendere (to take back) underlies both, but they operate in entirely different legal domains. Reprisals belong to the law of nations and contract remedies; reprises belong exclusively to real property valuation and conveyancing. The similarity in spelling has caused occasional conflation in older indexes and digests. ---
Why It Matters in Research
Pattern: Historical evolution with strong jurisdictional anchoring in English real property law. Researchers working with pre-twentieth century English or early American conveyancing documents, manor surveys, inquisitions post mortem, or estate valuations will encounter reprises and ultra reprises as standard formula language. Several navigational points merit attention: 1. Net versus gross value. Whenever a historical document states that land is worth a certain annual sum, the critical question is whether that figure is stated ultra reprises or not. Failing to spot this distinction will cause misreading of the estate's actual economic condition — a significant error in historical property research, estate litigation, or reconstructing the economic terms of a conveyance. 2. Pennsylvania statutory survival. Bouvier notes a specific Pennsylvania rule: lands could not be sold under execution when rents were sufficient to satisfy debt, interest, and costs within seven years "beyond all reprises." This is a direct statutory application of the reprises concept in early American law, and researchers examining Pennsylvania land records or debt enforcement actions from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries should watch for this standard. 3. Declining use. By the late nineteenth century, the term reprises had largely receded from active American legal drafting as feudal tenure structures dissolved. It survives primarily in historical records, older English land law authorities, and occasional citations to manor-based instruments. Modern property documents do not use the term; researchers should treat it as a marker of the feudal or early modern conveyancing tradition. 4. Corpus connections. Reprises appears in close textual company with terms like rent-charge, rentseck, corrody, annuity, and fee farm rent — all of which describe standing charges on land originating in the feudal land system. Understanding reprises requires familiarity with this cluster of related concepts. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The four historical sources consulted are in full agreement on the core meaning: reprises are annual deductions from land, and the clear value of an estate is stated ultra reprises. Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill both cite Cowell's legal dictionary as authority, reflecting that this is a term absorbed from English legal lexicography without significant American modification. Bouvier adds the most analytical value, distinguishing reprises from reprisals and noting the Pennsylvania statutory application — the only source among the four to record a direct American legislative use of the concept. Bouvier also supplies the etymological logic ("taken back") that illuminates why this category of charges carries this name. None of the historical sources provide extended analysis of how reprises interacted with specific conveyancing forms or how courts resolved disputes over what charges qualified as reprises versus other encumbrances. Researchers needing that level of detail should consult Coke on Littleton and the English real property treatise tradition directly. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Reprises as a technical term belongs primarily to English real property law and was carried into early American practice in states with strong English common law inheritance, particularly in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Pennsylvania provides the clearest American statutory example. The concept has no meaningful role in modern American property law and is not recognized as an operative term in current statutes or restatements. ---
Related Terms
Ultra reprises — the companion formula phrase; net annual value stated after reprises are deducted Rent-charge — a recurring payment secured against land; a primary component of reprises Rentseck — a rent without a right of distress; another component of reprises Corrody — a pension or allowance charged on a religious house or estate; historically included within reprises Annuity — a recurring payment; distinguished from rent-charge but historically grouped within reprises Fee farm rent — a perpetual rent reserved on a grant of land Reprisals — distinct concept; do not conflate (see COMMON CONFUSION above) Net annual value — the modern functional equivalent concept in property valuation Manor — the land unit to which reprises most commonly attach in historical sources Inquisition post mortem — historical record type in which ultra reprises valuations frequently appear
REPRISESmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In English law. Deduc- tions and duties which are yearly paid out of a manor and lands, as rent-charge, rent seck, pensions, corrodies, annuities, etc., so that, when the clear yearly value of a manor is spoken of, it is said to be so much per annum ultra reprisas,—besides all reprises. Cow- ell. Reprobata pecunia liberat solventem. Money refused [the refusal of money ten- dered] releases him who pays, [or tenders it.] 9 Coke, 79a.
REPRISESmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
to the offending state wherever found. Negative reprisals take place when a nation refuses to fulfil a perfect obligation which it has contracted, or to permit an- other state to enjoy a right which it justly claims. Positive reprisals consist in seizing the persons and effects belonging to the other nation, in order to obtain satisfaction. Special reprisals are such as are granted in times of peace to particular individuals who have suffered an injury from the citi- zens or subjects of the other nation. Reprisals are used between nation and nation to do themselves justice, when they cannot otherwise obtain it. Where an individual is injured by a foreign state he must first apply to its courts, if possible, and it is only when re- fused redress there that his own govern- ment can claim to interfere. Similarly where the injury is to a state, compensation should be demanded before recourse is had to reprisal. Risley, Law of War 57. An instance of reprisal occurred in December, 1897, when Germany threatened bombard- ment at Hayti unless the government with- in eight hours saluted the German flag and made compensation to an injured German subject. See LETTERS OF MARQUE. Reprisals are made in two ways, either by embargo, in which case the act is that of the state, or by letters of marque and reprisals, in which case the act is that of the citizen, authorized by the government. See 2 Brown, Civ. Law 334. Such letters are generally granted for a refusal to pay debts, for an unwarrantable suspension of treaty obligations, denial of evident justice, or a refusal to pay indemnity for losses. One of the last instances of a letter of re- prisal was in 1778 when the King of France gave authority of reprisal to certain people whose vessels had been seized by the British government for carrying contra- band of war; Snow, Int. Law 76. Con- gress has the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. U. S. Const. art. 1, s. 8. cl. 11. The property seized in making reprisals is preserved while there is any hope of ob- taining satisfaction or justice: as soon as that hope disappears, it is confiscated, and then the reprisal is complete; Vattel, b. 2, с. 18, § 342. See Boyd's Wheat. Int. Law. See POSTLIMINIUM.
REPRISESmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
The deductions and pay- ments out of lands, annuities, and the like are called reprises, because they are taken back; when we speak of the clear yearly value of an estate, we say it is worth so much a year ultra reprises, besides all re- prises. In Pennsylvania, lands are not to be sold under an execution when the rents can pay the debt and interest and costs in seven years, beyond all reprises.
reprisesnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
plural of reprise
reprisesverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
simple past and past participle of reprise

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