Definition
Reseiser (also spelled reseisure) is an old English legal term referring to the act of retaking seisin — that is, the resumption of possession or legal control over land. In its most specific historical usage, it described the Crown's act of taking land back into royal hands after a general livery or ouster le main had been improperly or unlawfully issued. Where the original release of land from royal custody had been granted contrary to the form and order of law, reseiser was the mechanism by which the Crown corrected the error by reasserting its hold over the estate.
The term belongs to the vocabulary of feudal tenure and the law of seisin. It is not a term of modern law and has no operative significance in contemporary property practice.
Common Confusion
Reseiser should not be confused with disseisin (the wrongful dispossession of a person from their freehold) or with novel disseisin (the possessory action used to remedy such a wrong). Where disseisin describes a wrongful taking of seisin from a private party, reseiser describes a lawful retaking of seisin by the Crown to correct a prior procedural error in the release of royal lands. The direction of the act and the identity of the actor are both different.
Reseiser is also distinct from resumption, though the concepts are related. Resumption was the broader royal power to retake granted lands or rights on various grounds; reseiser in its technical sense was specifically tied to the correction of an irregular ouster le main or general livery.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter reseiser almost exclusively in texts dealing with the medieval and early modern law of royal prerogative over land, wardship, and the incidents of feudal tenure. The term connects directly to the machinery of the Court of Wards and to the procedural law surrounding livery of seisin — the formal act by which a tenant received possession of lands held of the Crown.
The key navigational point is that reseiser operates within a very specific procedural context: it presupposes that a general livery or ouster le main (a release of land from royal custody, typically following a period of wardship) had already been granted, and that this grant was subsequently found to have been made contrary to proper legal form. Reseiser was the Crown's corrective response. Researchers following this term will need to understand ouster le main and general livery as predicate concepts.
Because the feudal tenure system that gave rise to reseiser was abolished in England by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, the term has no surviving doctrinal life. It appears in historical sources — primarily Staundforde's treatise on the royal prerogative and the works of later digest writers drawing on him — but not in modern statutes or case law. Researchers working in American law will find no direct counterpart; the feudal incidents underpinning reseiser never took root in colonial property law in the form required to generate this specific doctrine.
When searching historical sources, note that spelling is inconsistent across periods. Variants include reseisure, re-seisure, and occasionally reseisin (though the last may be used in a slightly different sense). Cross-referencing under seisin broadly and under the specific procedural actions (livery, ouster le main, wardship) will yield more material than searching the term itself.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary historical source for this entry. Burrill traces the term directly to Staundforde's Praerogiativa Regis and to Cowell's legal dictionary, placing it squarely in the literature of royal prerogative over land. The definition is consistent across these sources: reseiser is a taking-back of seisin by the Crown following an irregular release.
No substantive divergence among historical sources is apparent, which reflects the term's narrow and well-settled procedural meaning. The scarcity of the term in later dictionaries — including Bouvier and Black — underscores that it had little ongoing doctrinal vitality even by the time those works were compiled. Burrill preserves it as a matter of historical completeness rather than as live law.
The reference to Staundforde (Sir William Staundforde, Les Plees del Coron, 1557, and his work on the prerogative) anchors the term in mid-Tudor jurisprudence. Researchers seeking deeper treatment should consult Staundforde directly, as well as secondary literature on the Court of Wards.
Jurisdictional Note
Reseiser is exclusively a term of historical English law. It has no recognized American equivalent and does not appear as an operative concept in any common law jurisdiction today. Its relevance is confined to research in English legal history, the history of feudal tenure, and the development of royal prerogative doctrine.