TERRIER

9 definitions found across Law Mind sources

TERRIERAuthored
The Law Mind • 1038 words
Definition
A terrier is a historical English legal instrument: a written register, roll, or survey cataloguing lands belonging to an individual, corporation, or parish, typically recording the quantity of acres, the names of tenants, boundary descriptions, and similar particulars of landholding. The term applies in two overlapping contexts: 1. General terrier: A land-roll or survey of private or municipal lands, functioning as a comprehensive inventory of real property holdings. 2. Ecclesiastical terrier: A formal record of the temporal possessions of a church or parish, detailing glebe lands and other church property. The exchequer maintained a terrier of all glebe lands in England, with a notable survey dating to approximately 1338. These records were prepared periodically and filed with ecclesiastical and civil authorities as authoritative evidence of church landholdings. The term derives from the French terre (land) and appears in older sources as terrar, an earlier variant form.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A dog from a group of small, lively breeds originally bred for hunting burrowing prey such as rats, rabbits, foxes, and otters; informally, a person displaying determined, relentless pursuit. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): An auger or borer (marked obsolete). The divergence between common and legal meaning here is total. The familiar terrier — the dog — and the legal terrier — the land register — share no functional relationship. A researcher encountering "terrier" in historical legal documents, ecclesiastical records, or property surveys must set aside both the canine association and the obsolete tool meaning entirely. The legal term is exclusively a document type, not an animal or instrument.
Common Confusion
Terrier is sometimes loosely conflated with related survey instruments such as the extent, the rental, or the cartulary. While these documents overlap in purpose — all catalogue property interests — they are distinct in form and use. An extent typically records a formal valuation of lands for feudal or tax purposes. A rental records tenants and their obligations. A cartulary is a collection of charters and deeds. The terrier is specifically a descriptive survey of the physical character of landholdings (acreage, boundaries, tenants) rather than a valuation record or a collection of title instruments. Burrill distinguishes the terrier as a "register or survey," and Bouvier notes it catalogues "quantity of acres, the names of the tenants, and the like" — descriptive inventory, not appraisal or deed compilation.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in English ecclesiastical law, real property history, or pre-modern land tenure will encounter the terrier as a primary evidentiary source rather than merely a defined legal term. Several research traps are worth flagging: Jurisdictional survival in American records: Bouvier notes that one of the old records in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of Philadelphia County was still called the Germantown Terrier — a direct transplant of English ecclesiastical record-keeping practice into colonial Pennsylvania. Researchers should not assume that "terrier" as a document type is exclusively English; it survived in specific American jurisdictions, particularly in communities with strong English institutional traditions. Evidentiary use: Ecclesiastical terriers carried evidentiary weight in disputes over glebe lands and parish boundaries. Burrill cites Tamlyn's Law of Evidence for their particular application to ecclesiastical lands. Researchers tracing property rights of church institutions in English common law courts should look for terriers as foundational proof documents, not merely historical curiosities. Terminological inconsistency in historical sources: Anderson's entry for TERRIER in the source material is corrupted — the text reproduced under that heading is clearly misfiled content about terms and estate law, unrelated to land surveys. This is an indexing or transcription error in the historical dictionary, not a second legal meaning. Researchers relying on Anderson's should treat this entry as unreliable for this term and cross-check with Black's, Bouvier's, or Burrill's. Dating and archival access: The exchequer terrier of glebe lands referenced as dating to approximately 1338 is a concrete archival target for historians of ecclesiastical property. Researchers in this area should be aware that terriers were compiled at different periods by different authorities, so multiple terriers for the same lands may exist across different dates, sometimes conflicting.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2nd editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's are in full agreement on the core meaning: a land survey or roll recording acreage, tenants, and related particulars, with particular application to ecclesiastical lands. The definitions are nearly identical across sources, which reflects the term's stable, specialized usage rather than any conceptual evolution. Burrill adds the most linguistic depth, tracing the term to the Latin-French terre and noting the earlier variant form terrar. He also provides the most complete characterization — "a book or roll in which the several lands, either of an individual or corporation, are described" — making clear the term was not limited to church property despite the ecclesiastical application being its best-documented context. Bouvier's is the most useful for American researchers because it anchors the term in domestic practice via the Germantown Terrier reference, demonstrating that the concept crossed the Atlantic in active use, not merely as a borrowed English vocabulary word. None of the historical dictionaries address the evidentiary standards for introducing a terrier in litigation, nor do they discuss how terriers interacted with later statutory land registration systems. Researchers needing that procedural dimension must look beyond dictionary sources to works like Tamlyn's Law of Evidence (cited by Burrill) or specialist histories of ecclesiastical property law.
Jurisdictional Note
The terrier as a formal document type is primarily an English institution, rooted in ecclesiastical and common law land administration. Its direct survival in American legal practice was limited but not absent — the Philadelphia example in Bouvier's confirms colonial adoption in at least one jurisdiction. Researchers working in jurisdictions with strong English ecclesiastical settlement histories should search local deed and recorder archives for terrier-style instruments before assuming the term is exclusively a foreign import.
Related Terms
Terrar (earlier variant form) Glebe (the church land most commonly surveyed in ecclesiastical terriers) Extent (valuation survey; distinguished from terrier) Rental (tenant obligation record; distinguished from terrier) Cartulary (charter collection; distinguished from terrier) Survey (general parent concept) Land-roll Copyhold (tenure type frequently documented in terriers) Ecclesiastical law
TERRIERmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In English law. A land- roll or survey of lands, containing the quan- tity of acres, tenants' names, and such like; and in the exchequer there is a terrier of all the glebe lands in England, made about 1338. In general, an ecclesiastical terrier contains a detail of the temporal possessions of the church in every parish. Cowell; Tomlins; Mozley & Whitley.
TERRIERmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
In English law. A _ landroll or survey of lands, containing the quantity of acres, tenants’ names, and such like; and in the exchequer there is a terrier of all the glebe lands in England, made about 1338. In general, an ecclesiastical terrier contains a detail of the temporal possessions of the church in every parish. Cowell; Tomlins; Mozley & Whitley.
TERRIERmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
3an error of fact or law, after the term at which rendered, unless for clerical mistakes; nor can any change be made which may substantially affect the decision.¹ Apply, respectively, to the places of beginning and ending of ways, of risks in marine insurance, to transfers of title, etc.¹ See AT; FROM; TO. 2. An estate for years: since its existence Courts of common law had power to vacate judgis limited, begins and ends. ments during the term in which they were rendered, and the rule is still the same in all courts exercising jurisdiction in common-law cases. A term continues until the call of the next succeeding term, unless previously adjourned sine die.2 Judgments are considered as rendered on the first day of the term. There is a fiction that a term consists of but one day. This is tolerated for the purposes of justice. To antedate the judicial rejection of a claim, so as to give effect to a grant, does not promote the ends of justice.3 The time of a term's commencing is fixed by statute, and its end by the final adjournment of the court for that term. After the term has ended, all final judgments and decrees of the court pass beyond its control, unless steps be taken during that term, by motion or otherwise, to set aside, modify, or correct them; and if errors exist they can be corrected only by such proceeding, by writ of error or appeal, as may be allowed in the court which by law can review the decision. To this rule is the one exception of error coram nobis, q. v. When a cause is in progress the trial is not to be discontinued by the arrival of a new term. See CONTINUANCE, 2; NEXT; SESSION, 1; VACATION. 5. The period prescribed for holding an office. The expression "term of office" uniformly designates a fixed and definite period of time. See OFFICE, 2; TENURE. In old English law, a landroll, or survey of lands, containing the number of acres, tenants' names, etc.8 Terminus a quo. The end from which; the starting point; the beginning. Termiporal possessions of the church. Also, a detailed statement or inventory of the temnes ad quem. The end to which; the point of ending; termination. 1 See 2 Bl. Com. 504; 4 Kent, 413. 2 [2 Bl. Com. 144: Coke, Litt. 46. 32 Bl. Com. 109; 17 How. 145; Baldw. 129; 57 Cal. 497; 1 Morgan's Louisiana & Texas R. &c. Co. v. Texas 2 Hill (N. Y.), 500. Central R. Co., 32 F. R. 530 (1887), cases, Harlan, J. Exp. Lange, 18 Wall. 192 (1873), cases, Clifford, J. • Newhall v. Sanger, 92 U. S. 766 (1875), cases. • Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 415 (1881), cases, Miller, J.; Phillips v. Negley, 117 id. 672-75 (1886), cases. R. S. § 746. See 2 Bl. Com. 91, 328. Carpenter v. Koons, 20 Pa. 226 (1852), Black, C. J.; Nailer v. Stanley, 10 S. & R. 453 (1823); 13 W. N. C. 502; 31 Leg. Int. 257; 1 Johns. Ch. 447; 5 id. 235. • See Cahoon v. Hollenbeck, 16 S. & R. 424 (1826); Colwell v. Easley, 83 Pa. 31 (1876); Penn. Act 1 June, • Speer v. Crawford, 3 Metc. *213 (Ky., 1860); People 1887. v. Brundage, 78 N. Y. 407 (1879), Church, C. J. Gracie v. Marine Ins. Co.; 8 Cranch, 82 (1814), Marshall, C. J. F.: L. L. terrarius liber, land book. • See Tomlins, Cowell, Law Dicts. In Termes de la Ley (1721) spelled "terrar."
TERRIERn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
An auger or borer. [Obs.]
TERRIERn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
One of a breed of small dogs, which includes several distinct subbreeds, some of which, such as the Skye terrier and Yorkshire terrier, have long hair and drooping ears, while others, at the English and the black-and-tan terriers, have short, close, smooth hair and upright ears. Formerly, a collection of acknowledgments of the vassals or tenants of a lordship, containing the rents and services they owed to the lord, and the like. In modern usage, a book or roll in which the lands of private persons or corporations are described by their site, boundaries, number of acres, or the like. [Written also terrar.]
terriernoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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A dog from a group of small, lively breeds, originally bred for the hunting of burrowing prey such as rats, rabbits, foxes, and even otters; this original function is reflected in some of their names (e.g. rat terrier). | Someone displaying terrier-like qualities such as determined pursuit.
terriernoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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A collection of acknowledgments of the vassals or tenants of a lordship, containing the rents and services they owed to the lord, etc. | An inventory (book or roll) in which the lands of private persons or corporations are described by their site, boundaries, number of acres, etc.; a terrar.
terriernoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
An auger or borer.

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