Definition
In law, "several" carries two distinct and frequently invoked meanings, each defined by contrast with a different opposing concept.
1. Separate, distinct, and independent — as opposed to "joint." When obligations, rights, or liabilities are several in this sense, each person bears or holds them independently of the others. A several obligation binds each obligor alone; a joint obligation binds all together as a single legal unit. The distinction governs how parties may be sued, how releases operate, and how liability is apportioned. In practice, obligations are often "joint and several" simultaneously — meaning each party is liable both independently and as part of the group — though this hybrid form has specific technical consequences that differ from either pure form alone.
2. Exclusive and individually appropriated — as opposed to "common." In property contexts, a several right is one held privately and exclusively by one person, not shared with others. A several fishery, for example, is the exclusive right to fish in a particular water, held by one person to the exclusion of all others, including the public. This sense appears most often in older property and water rights contexts and is largely historical in modern usage.
A third, more informal usage — meaning "more than two but not very many" — also appears in legal texts, particularly older statutes and decisions, though this is closer to the ordinary English sense than a term of art.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Separate, distinct; a number of different things; various.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Separate; distinct; particular; single" and also "consisting of a number more than two, but not very many."
The ordinary English meaning of "several" — essentially "a few" or "various" — maps poorly onto the legal meaning. In everyday speech, "several people agreed" simply means more than two or three people agreed. In law, "several liability" or "a several covenant" signals that each party stands alone, legally independent of the others. A reader encountering "several" in a contract or deed without awareness of this legal sense may fundamentally misread the allocation of rights or liability at stake.
Common Confusion
SEVERAL vs. JOINT: These terms define opposite ends of a spectrum in obligation and liability. Joint means all parties are treated as a single legal unit; several means each is treated independently. The confusion matters most when reading older instruments that may use one term loosely. JOINT AND SEVERAL is a distinct third category — not merely a combination of the two, but a recognized legal form with its own rules regarding contribution, release, and suit.
SEVERAL (individual/exclusive) vs. SEVERAL (as in "a few"): Both usages appear in legal sources, often without distinction. In property and covenant contexts, "several" means exclusive and appropriated. In statutory construction and older judicial opinions, courts occasionally treat "several" as meaning simply "more than two." Bouvier notes that at least one court held "several hundred dollars" includes seven hundred, treating the word as a quantitative rather than qualitative term.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "several" is a high-frequency source of interpretive error in historical legal research because its legal meanings have drifted and its ordinary meaning actively misleads. Several problems arise in corpus navigation:
First, the joint/several distinction is fundamental to reading any instrument creating shared obligations — deeds, bonds, promissory notes, partnership agreements, and contracts. Historical instruments often use "several" as a term of art where a modern reader would expect "individual" or "separate." Reading "several covenant" as merely meaning "a few covenants" produces the wrong legal analysis entirely.
Second, the property-law sense (exclusive, as opposed to common) appears primarily in older English and early American materials on fisheries, pasturage, and water rights. This usage has largely fallen out of modern American practice, meaning a researcher working in historical property sources must recognize the term in a context where modern property vocabulary would use "exclusive" or "private."
Third, the quantitative sense — "several" meaning more than two but not many — appears in statutory interpretation cases and occasionally creates ambiguity when the same instrument uses "several" in both its quantitative and legal-technical senses. Courts have not always been consistent.
Fourth, "joint and several" is a compound term of art with its own extensive treatment in sources across contracts, torts, and property. Searching for "several" alone without the joint-and-several pairing will miss a large body of relevant material.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on the core distinction: several as the opposite of joint, and several as the opposite of common. Black's (1st and 2nd editions) states the definition with characteristic economy, flagging both contrasts without extended elaboration. Bouvier adds the useful note that courts have sometimes construed "several" as meaning "all" or as a quantitative term, and cites authority for both propositions — a candid acknowledgment that the word is not always used with precision. Burrill, drawing on Old French and Latin roots (separale, separalis), anchors the term in its earliest English legal usage, where "several" most commonly appeared in property contexts — a person's "several" being their separate, enclosed share of land or water. Rapalje & Lawrence, focused on covenant doctrine, illustrates how the joint/several distinction operates in practice: covenants are joint or several depending on the nature of the covenantors' interests, and the rules for covenantees differ from those for covenantors. None of the historical dictionaries address the potential confusion with the ordinary quantitative meaning, which Bouvier's citation evidence suggests courts encountered with some regularity.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
For related treatment of severance concepts in employment contexts, see: Severance Agreements, Releases, and Settlement of Claims (The Law Mind Employment & Labor Law Encyclopedia) and Employment Contracts — Severance Agreements and Release of Claims (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia). Note that "severance" in those entries derives from the same separating/dividing concept but addresses distinct legal doctrines. For property severance, see: Eminent Domain — Partial Takings and Severance Damages (The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia).