Definition
To clear land of woods, thickets, and underbrush. Sartare appears in old Latin records as a verb describing the act of grubbing up trees and vegetation to render forested or overgrown land fit for cultivation. The term is closely associated with assarting — the conversion of forest land to arable use — and appears in medieval documents as a descriptor of the physical act underlying that legal concept.
Common Confusion
Sartare and assart are not synonymous, though they describe related things. Sartare is the act of clearing; assart (or essart) refers both to the act and, more commonly in legal records, to the resulting cleared land itself, which could be held, granted, or subjected to forest penalties. Researchers encountering sartare in a document are looking at process language; those encountering assart are more likely in the domain of tenure, forfeiture, or forest court proceedings.
Why It Matters in Research
Sartare is primarily a document-reading term rather than a substantive legal category. Researchers will encounter it in medieval Latin records — forest eyre rolls, manorial surveys, and monastic cartularies — as a descriptive verb, not as a defined legal right or offense. Its importance lies in recognizing it as the operative act that triggered substantial legal consequences under English forest law: unauthorized sartare on royal forest land constituted an offense cognizable before the forest courts, exposing the offender to fine or forfeiture.
Because the term appears almost exclusively in pre-modern Latin records, researchers working with translated or calendar editions may find it rendered as "to assart," "to grub," or "to clear," without the original Latin verb being preserved. When precision about the original record matters — as in land history research or forest law scholarship — consulting the Latin original is advisable.
The corpus connection runs directly to assart. Any document in the Law Mind corpus discussing assarting, forest eyres, or the administration of royal forests will provide the legal framework within which sartare appears. Standalone entries for sartare are uncommon even in historical legal dictionaries; Burrill's treatment is brief and cross-referential, directing readers immediately to assart for substantive discussion.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal English-language legal dictionary source for this term, and its entry is minimal: it identifies sartare as a Latin verb found in old records meaning to clear a place of woods and thickets, citing Spelman and directing readers to the entry for assart. This brevity is itself informative — the term carried no independent legal doctrine, and historical lexicographers treated it as definitionally subsidiary to assart. Spelman's Glossarium Archaeologicum is the underlying authority Burrill cites, reflecting that sartare belongs to the vocabulary of medieval Latin record-keeping rather than to common law doctrine as such. No meaningful divergence among historical sources exists on this term because its usage was narrow and descriptive.
Jurisdictional Note
Sartare is a term of English medieval forest law and appears in records relating to the royal forests of England. It has no recognized usage in American law and is unlikely to appear in any post-colonial legal context.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Assarting and Forest Law; Royal Forest Courts.