TASSARE

2 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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TASSAREAuthored
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Definition
In old English and medieval Latin legal usage, *tassare* means to stack or to heap up. The term appears in records and pleadings concerning the physical arrangement of harvested agricultural goods — most commonly hay — into stacks or mows on land. The associated noun form, *tassum* (also *tassa*), denotes the heap or haystack itself. The term is a word of action: *tassare* describes the act of stacking, while *tassum* names the resulting structure. Both terms appear in contexts where the condition, custody, or disposition of stored crops was legally significant — particularly in disputes over agricultural tenancies, waste, or the duties owed by a farmer or bailiff to a landowner. ---
Why It Matters in Research
This is a term of medieval agricultural law, not of modern practice. Researchers will encounter *tassare* almost exclusively in: 1. **Plea rolls and manorial records** from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where specific obligations regarding the stacking and covering of grain or hay were enforceable duties of tenants or estate managers. 2. **Fleta**, the late thirteenth-century legal treatise from which Burrill draws his primary reference. Fleta, Book II, describes the duties of the manorial reeve and ploughman in detail, including obligations to ensure that harvested goods were properly stacked (*tassari*) and covered (*cooperiri*). Researchers working with Fleta should expect this term in chapters dealing with agricultural administration and manorial economy. 3. **Registrum Brevium (Reg. Orig.)** entries — Burrill cites folio 96 — where *fænum in tassis* (hay in stacks) appears as a descriptive phrase in original writs. When researching early forms of action for conversion or waste involving stored crops, this Latin phrasing may appear in the writ itself. The key research trap here is misreading *tassare* as a financial or taxation term. The visual similarity to *taxare* (to assess or tax) has caused occasional transcription and indexing errors in older legal digests. Any index entry that seems to associate *tassare* with fiscal assessments should be treated with suspicion and verified against the original Latin text. Researchers should also note that *tassum* could refer to a haystack as a physical boundary marker or asset in property and probate instruments. An inventory of a deceased tenant's goods might enumerate *tassi fæni* as chattels, placing the term in the orbit of executors' accounts and testamentary proceedings as well as pure agricultural tenure disputes. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal anglophone legal dictionary to treat *tassare* as a discrete headword, and its treatment is accurate within its limits. Burrill correctly identifies the term as Latin-rooted, correctly glosses it as "to stack" and "to heap up," and correctly pairs *tassare* with *cooperiri* (to be covered) as linked obligations from Fleta. The citation to Fleta, Book II, Chapter 73, Section 9, and the additional cross-references to Chapters 81 and 82 are useful pointers for researchers who wish to examine the duties of manorial officers in context. What Burrill does not provide — and what no single-volume legal dictionary can supply — is the broader agricultural and manorial law context in which these obligations lived. The stacking and covering of hay was not a mere housekeeping detail; in a subsistence agricultural economy, the loss of improperly stored hay could constitute waste actionable against a tenant. The legal specificity of *tassari et cooperiri* as a phrase reflects this practical and legal weight. No entry for *tassare* or *tassum* appears in Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, or Black's Law Dictionary in any edition, confirming that this is a term of strictly historical and archival significance rather than continuing common law vocabulary. ---
Jurisdictional Note
*Tassare* is a term of English medieval law with no independent doctrinal life in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. Researchers working in continental European archival sources may encounter cognate terms in Latin manorial and agricultural records, but the legal contexts will differ from the English materials in Fleta and the Registrum Brevium. ---
Related Terms
TASSUM — the noun form; the haystack or heap itself WASTE — the broader doctrine under which failure to properly store and protect crops could give rise to a legal action FLETA — the thirteenth-century treatise that is the primary source for this term in English legal literature REGISTRUM BREVIUM — the register of original writs where associated Latin agricultural phrases appear COOPERIRI — to be covered; the paired obligation appearing alongside *tassari* in manorial duty formulations BAILIFF — the manorial officer whose duties in crop storage gave rise to the practical context for these terms REEVE — the estate manager whose agricultural obligations are described in the Fleta passages at issue
TASSAREmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870
L. Lat. In old English law. To stack; to heap up. Tassari et co-operiri; to be stacked and covered. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 73, § 9. See Id. cc. 81, 82. TASSUM, Tassa. L. Lat. In old English law. A heap; a hay-mow, or haystack. Fænum in tassis; hay in stacks. Reg. Orig. 96. where liquors are retailed and drunk, and requiring a license as such. 1 Rev. St. [678-681,] 677-680. In the laws of Pennsylvania and Ohio, it is employed in the same sense. Purdon's Dig. (ed. 1857,) 428, pl. 2. Swan's Statutes of Ohio, (1854,) chap. 112, (21,) sect. 1. 2 Kent's Com. 597, note. In other states, the term has been applied to houses where liquor is not retailed. Thus, in Kentucky, taverns must be licensed, even though spiritous liquors

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