RTY - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

RTYAuthored

The Law Mind • 958 words

Definition

RTY does not appear to be a recognized legal term. The source material provided under this heading contains a fragment from Rapalje & Lawrence describing **common of piscary** (also spelled **common of fishery**) — the right to fish in another person's private waters in common with the owner of those waters. The entry appears to have been assigned the label "RTY" in error, likely due to a cataloging or OCR artifact.

For research purposes, the substance of the source excerpt is treated here under its proper subject.

**Common of Piscary** (the actual term in the source): A species of profit à prendre entitling the holder to take fish from private waters — a pond, lake, or enclosed river — owned by another, without excluding the owner from also fishing there. It is a right of use, not a right of ownership over the water itself.

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Common Confusion

Common of piscary is frequently confused with a **right of fishery** or **several fishery**, which is an exclusive right to fish in particular waters and does operate in exclusion of the owner. Common of piscary, by contrast, is always shared with the owner. The distinction matters acutely in historical title research: a grant of "fishery" without qualification may carry very different legal weight than a grant of "common of piscary."

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Core Elements

For common of piscary to be legally operative, the following structure applies:

1. **Subject waters**: Must be private — a pond, enclosed stream, or non-tidal river held in private ownership. Public fisheries in tidal or navigable waters are governed by different doctrine entirely.
2. **Non-exclusivity**: The right is exercised in common with the landowner. It does not displace the owner's own right to fish.
3. **Mode of attachment**: May be **appurtenant** (attached to dominant land and passing with it) or **in gross** (held personally, independent of land ownership). The source material notes it is apparently not **appendant** — the most formal and automatic mode of attachment recognized at common law.
4. **Profit à prendre character**: As a profit à prendre, it authorizes the holder to enter the land and take something of value from it (fish), distinguishing it from a mere easement, which confers only a right of passage or use without taking.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Common of piscary sits within the broader family of **commons** at common law:

- **Common appendant**: Attached automatically to arable land by operation of law. Common of piscary does not take this form.
- **Common appurtenant**: Attached to land by express grant or prescription. Common of piscary most naturally takes this form.
- **Common in gross**: Held by a person independently of any dominant tenement. Common of piscary may also exist in gross, making it personal property capable of separate conveyance.

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Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering this term in historical deeds, estate records, or conveyancing documents face two immediate challenges.

First, **terminological inconsistency**: historical sources use "common of piscary," "common of fishery," "right of fishery," and "several fishery" with varying precision. Rapalje & Lawrence distinguishes these carefully; older deeds frequently do not. Always read the surrounding grant language to determine whether exclusivity is implied.

Second, **the appendant question**: The source excerpt flags genuine doctrinal uncertainty — Rapalje & Lawrence cites Elton on Commons for the proposition that common of piscary cannot be appendant, but notes Coulson & Forbes on Waters at page 341 as a potential counterpoint. This unresolved tension in the secondary literature means researchers should not assume a single settled rule in historical English sources, and should treat American authorities as potentially diverging further.

Third, the **profit à prendre classification** is consequential for title searching: profits à prendre are capable of burdening land in perpetuity, must be expressly released or extinguished, and do not simply lapse. A chain of title that ignores a historic grant of common of piscary may be incomplete.

Finally, note that the Rapalje & Lawrence entry references Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 122a) and Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Com. 34) as the authoritative common law foundations. Researchers working with pre-twentieth-century American water rights disputes will find these the relevant starting points for judicial reasoning.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Rapalje & Lawrence provide the most structured treatment in the Law Mind corpus. Their entry correctly situates common of piscary as a profit à prendre — a classification confirmed by Coke and Blackstone — and correctly distinguishes it from exclusive fishery rights. The citation to Hall on Commons and Elton on Commons reflects the standard nineteenth-century English authority structure on this question.

The source is silent on American statutory modifications, which are significant: many U.S. jurisdictions abolished or substantially modified common law profits à prendre by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and public trust doctrine in American law affects fishing rights in ways that have no direct English common law counterpart.

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Jurisdictional Note

Common of piscary as a formal common law right is most relevant to research involving English, Welsh, and early American colonial land tenure. In the United States, most states do not recognize profits appurtenant in the strict English common law form, and fishing rights are more commonly addressed through riparian rights doctrine, state licensing regimes, and public trust principles. Researchers working with American materials should treat historical references to "common of piscary" as indicators of English-derived drafting rather than operative modern legal categories.

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RTYmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

7. Common of piscary, or fishery, is he right of fishing in another man's waters, such as a pond or private river, but in common with, i. not in exclusion of the owner of the wil. Common of piscary is a profit à prendre, 'Co. Litt. 122a; 2 Bl. Com. 34; Hall Com. 307 ;) ind may be either appurtenant or in gross, but apparently not appendant. (Elt. Com. 105. See, however, Coulson & F. Waters 341.) The term seems to be confined to that right of fishing which the tenants of manorial land have of fishing in the waters of the lord. See Wms. Com. 137, 259; Elt. Com. 105; infra, § 8. 28. Free fishery. - The true nature of a free fishery is a disputed point. According to Coke, it is much the same (at all events in the right which it confers) as a common of piscary, (Co. Litt. 122a, and Hargrave's note,) while Blackstone savs, that a free fishery is an exclusive right of fishing in a public river, and is a royal franchise. (2) Bl. Com. 39; Elt. Com. 107.) There is no doubt that the term is used in both senses. (Malcolmson ข. O'Dea, 10 H. L. Cas. 593.) It may be suggested, that "free fishery" originally meant merely a liberty or right of a fishing created by express grant from the owner of the soil or water. Consequently, such right, if granted by the crown, would give the right of fishing in a public river to the exclusion of all private persons (though not necessarily to the exclusion of the crown), while, if granted by the owner of a several fishery, it would give the right of fishing in his water to the exclusion of all persons except himself. In other words, it right to fish in the rivers wherein the tide does not ebb and flow, even though navigable. (5 Day (Conn.) 72; 20 Johns. (N. Y.) 90; 62 Barb. (N. Y.) 237; 1 Pick. (Mass.) 180; 3 Ν. Η. 321.) In some States, also, private fisheries are under legislative control, notably, Maine and Massachusetts. Fishing on the high seas, i. e. at least one marine league off shore, is common to all the world, and treaties respecting such fisheries are frequent between nations. FISHERY, (ejectment will not lie for). 8 Mod. 275, 277. (in a lease and release). 4 Barn. & C. 485, 496. (in navigable waters, right of is common). 5 Day (Conn.) 22; 1 Conn. 382; 3 Wheel. Am. C. L. 523; 5 Id. 414. (right of). 4 Pick. (Mass.) 145; Ang. Waterc., § 61. FISHERY, FREE, (not an exclusive fishery). 7 Pick. (Mass.) 79.