Definition
A term from old English law denoting a heap, hay-mow, or haystack. It appears in the context of agricultural property and the storage of hay in stacked form. The Latin phrase fænum in tassis — hay in stacks — captures the term's primary reference: harvested hay gathered and mounded in the field or farmyard as a discrete unit of agricultural property.
Why It Matters in Research
TASSUM is a narrow, archaic term confined to medieval English agricultural and property law. Researchers are most likely to encounter it in writs, manorial records, or early common law pleading where specific agricultural goods were named as subjects of trespass, theft, or distress actions. The precision of such language mattered in early common law practice: identifying property as hay in stacks (fænum in tassis) versus hay in the field or hay already stored in a barn could affect which remedy or writ applied.
The Registrum Omnium Brevium (Reg. Orig.) citation appearing in both Black's editions points to the standard writ registry used by medieval practitioners. Researchers working with early English writs or manorial court records may find TASSUM, or its Latin equivalent, embedded in formulaic pleading language. Outside that historical context, the term has no continuing legal significance and does not appear in modern statutory or common law.
Note that the 2nd edition of Black's appends an unrelated entry — TATH — directly after TASSUM, apparently due to a typographical or formatting artifact in the original. TATH refers to a separate manorial custom in Norfolk and Suffolk whereby lords could bring tenants' flocks onto their own demesne lands overnight for soil improvement. The two terms are distinct and should not be conflated, though their proximity in historical dictionaries may create confusion for researchers scanning that portion of the alphabet.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's editions are in agreement on the core definition: a heap, hay-mow, or haystack. The first edition is tightly focused, giving only the definition and the Reg. Orig. reference. The second edition reproduces the same content but includes the TATH entry immediately following, creating the typographical bleed noted above. Neither edition offers substantive legal analysis beyond the basic descriptive gloss, which is consistent with the term's status as an obsolete term of limited doctrinal importance. No divergence exists between the two editions on substance. Historical dictionaries beyond Black's are unlikely to add meaningful depth; this is a term that reached the legal lexicon through early writ practice and did not develop further.