RESIANT ROLLS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

RESIANT ROLLSAuthored

The Law Mind • 669 words

Definition

Resiant rolls are records maintained in the context of the English court leet, listing the resiants — that is, the resident inhabitants — of a tithing or similar local administrative subdivision. These rolls served as a kind of muster or census document for the purposes of local governance, enabling the steward presiding over the court leet to call over the names of those persons subject to the jurisdiction and obligations of that court. The rolls were read aloud at the holding of the court leet as a means of accounting for all inhabitants within the tithing's bounds.

The term derives directly from "resiant," an archaic designation for a person who resides within a given place and is therefore subject to its local duties and courts. A resiant was distinct from a mere sojourner or transient; the classification carried legal significance in determining who bore local obligations such as suit of court, watch and ward, and jury service at the leet.

Why It Matters in Research

Resiant rolls are a term of art specific to English manorial and local court practice. Researchers encountering this term are almost certainly working in one of two contexts: historical English law predating the abolition of courts leet, or comparative legal history examining local governance structures. The term has no operative meaning in modern American or Commonwealth statutory law.

The key navigational trap is conflating resiant rolls with other manorial records. Courts leet generated multiple distinct document types — presentments, amercement records, view of frankpledge records — and resiant rolls are specifically the attendance or inhabitancy lists read over by the steward, not the substantive proceedings themselves. Researchers working in manorial archives should distinguish these rolls from court rolls generally, which are the broader record of leet proceedings.

Because the term appears only briefly and incompletely in Black's, and Bouvier's entry is truncated mid-definition and pivots immediately to "Residence," researchers relying solely on these dictionary sources will find little guidance. Primary sources on court leet procedure — including treatises by William Lambarde (Eirenarcha) and later manorial practice guides — provide more operational detail on how these rolls functioned.

For corpus researchers, resiant rolls will appear most often in:
- Historical English legal treatises on manorial law and court leet procedure
- Antiquarian legal works discussing frankpledge and tithing organization
- English local history records and manorial surveys

The term is rarely if ever contested or litigated; it surfaces as descriptive background in treatises rather than as a term at issue in cases.

Historical Dictionary Support

Both Black's and Bouvier's provide essentially identical, and identically truncated, definitions: resiant rolls are "those containing the resiants in a tithing, etc." Black's breaks off at that point. Bouvier's adds the essential operational detail — that these rolls "were called over by the steward on holding courts leet" — before the entry abruptly transitions to an unrelated entry on "Residence." Neither source provides historical depth, procedural context, or any distinction from related manorial records.

This shared brevity is itself instructive. By the time Black's and Bouvier's were compiled, courts leet were largely historical curiosities in American legal practice, and the term warranted acknowledgment rather than sustained treatment. Researchers needing fuller treatment should look to English manorial law sources directly. The dictionaries agree on the basic substance — inhabitancy lists for tithings, used in leet court proceedings — and there is no divergence between them on meaning. The gap is not contradiction but omission.

Jurisdictional Note

Resiant rolls are a feature of English manorial law and have no equivalent in American legal practice. The courts leet in which these rolls functioned were not transplanted to the American colonies in operative form. Researchers in American legal history will not encounter this term except in works discussing English legal antecedents.

RESIANT ROLLSmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

Those containing the resiants in a tithing, etc., which were called over by the steward on holding courts leet. RESIDENCE (Lat. resideo). Person- al presence in a fixed and permanent abode. 20 Johns. 208; 1 Metc. Mass. 251. The abode where one actually lives, not the legal domicil. 69 Hun 617. A residence is different from a domicil, although it is a matter of great importance in determining the place of domicil. The essential distinction between residence and domicil is that the first involves the intent to leave when the purpose for which one has taken up his abode ceases. The other has no such intent; the abiding is animo manendi. One may seek a place for the purposes of pleasure, of business, or of health. If his intent be to remain, it be- comes his domicil; if his intent be to leave as soon as his purpose is accomplished, it is his residence; 53 Fed. Rep. 311. See 13 Mass. 501; 2 Gray 490; 19 Wend. 11; 11 La. 175; 5 Me. 143; 50 Hun, 454; 59 L. J. 67; DOMICIL. But it has been held syn- onymous with domicil; 15 Co. Ct. Rep. Pa. 312. It is an element of domicil. See 97 Pa. 74; 21 Wall. 350; Dicey, Dom. 1. Residence and habitancy are usually synonymous; 2 Gray 490: 2 Kent 574, n. Residence indicates permanency of occupation, as distinct from lodging, or boarding, or temporary occupation, but does not include as much as domicil, which requires an intention combined with resi- dence; 19 Me. 293: 2 Kent 576. See 5 Sandf. 44; 16 N. Y. S. 834. In a statute it was held not to mean business residence, but the fixed home of the party; 13 Reptr. 4:30 (S. C. of Md.). See 15 M. & W. 433; 69 Hun 308. Residence has been held to be more re- stricted than domicil as applied to home- stead laws; 118 N. C. 421. An averment of residence is not equiva- lent to an allegation of citizenship; 21 U. S. App. 45. It was held that within the meaning of the statute against kidnapping, any place where a child has a right to be is its resi- dence; 147 Ind. 621. See KIDNAPPING ;