Definition
An archaic Latin term of old English law meaning "to take" or "to be seised." The word functions both as a verb (to seise, to take possession) and as a participial form (seisitus, meaning seised or in possession). It is the Latin root from which the English legal vocabulary of seisin derives, appearing in early common law pleadings, writs, and records where Latin remained the language of formal legal documentation. In practical terms, to seisire was to be invested with seisin — that is, with the feudal possessory interest in freehold land that carried legal recognition and legal consequences under the common law of real property.
The term is not operative in any modern legal system and survives only in historical records and the scholarly literature surrounding feudal land tenure.
Common Confusion
SEISIRE / SEYSIRE: Burrill's own entry directs readers to SEYSIRE as an alternate form, indicating that the spelling was not fixed in historical sources. Researchers encountering either spelling in old records are looking at the same term. Further variants (seisitus, seised, seisi) appear as conjugated or anglicized forms in different documentary contexts. Do not treat spelling variation as evidence of a distinct legal concept.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research value of SEISIRE is as a paleographic and linguistic key. Researchers working in pre-modern English legal records — plea rolls, feet of fines, inquisitions post mortem, early Year Books — will encounter Latin text in which seisire, seisitus, or related forms appear as technical terms of art rather than ordinary Latin. Recognizing these forms as seisin vocabulary, rather than general Latin for "seizing" or "taking," is essential to accurate reading.
Two traps arise in historical sources. First, the word's visual and phonetic resemblance to seize and seizure (the law enforcement concept) can mislead readers trained in modern law who encounter it in historical context. Feudal seisin and law enforcement seizure are conceptually unrelated; conflating them produces serious misreadings of early land law documents. Second, the transition from Latin to Law French to English in legal records means that seisire, saisir, and seise/seised are functionally equivalent across different documentary strata of roughly the same period. A researcher must recognize all three forms as pointing to the same underlying concept.
Because Burrill cross-references SEYSIRE without expanding on either entry, researchers relying solely on Burrill for either spelling will find only a minimal stub. The substantive doctrine lives under SEISIN and its related entries in the major historical dictionaries (Bouvier, Black, Jacob) and in the treatise literature on feudal tenure.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is spare: a language note (L. Lat.), a jurisdictional marker (old English law), two short glosses (to take; to be seised), a single case citation (Cro. Jac. 634), and a cross-reference to SEYSIRE. This minimalism is appropriate. SEISIRE is a form word, not a doctrine. The historical dictionaries generally treat it this way — as an entry that anchors the Latin root rather than explains the legal concept. Researchers seeking the substantive doctrine should move immediately to SEISIN, where Burrill, Bouvier, and Black all provide extended treatment. The citation to Cro. Jac. 634 (Croke's Jacobean reports) confirms that the term appeared in early seventeenth-century judicial records, but the case itself is the working source; Burrill's entry functions only as a locator.
Jurisdictional Note
SEISIRE is a term of old English law with no operative jurisdiction today. Its relevance is confined to historical research in English common law materials and in American colonial-era records that carried forward Latin pleading forms before anglicization was complete.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See SEISIN (Law Mind Encyclopedia) for the substantive feudal doctrine to which this term belongs.