THEM

Definition

In old English law, THEM (also spelled "thema" or appearing as a variant of THEME) is a feudal tenure right — specifically, an acquittance or exemption from amercements assessed against a lord's villeins or followers. The term denotes the privilege by which a lord was freed from liability for the financial penalties (amercements) imposed upon members of his household or villein community by royal or manorial courts. The definition is narrow and archaic. THEM in this legal sense has no operative meaning in modern law and appears only in historical sources dealing with Anglo-Saxon and early Norman tenure arrangements.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The objective case of the third-person plural pronoun — referring to those previously mentioned, used as direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition. Also increasingly accepted as a singular gender-neutral pronoun. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The objective case of "they," referring to a group of persons or things previously identified. Webster's illustrates purely grammatical usage with no legal valence. The gap here is total and non-obvious. A researcher encountering "them" in a medieval English legal text — particularly in a passage about manorial obligations or villein tenure — may be reading not a pronoun but a technical term of feudal law denoting a specific exemption privilege. Context is the only reliable guide.

Common Confusion

THEM and THEME (also THEMA) are closely related and sometimes used interchangeably in historical sources. THEME is the more commonly cited headword; THEM is treated by both Bouvier and Burrill as a variant spelling. Researchers should search both forms when working in sources dealing with Saxon or early Norman land tenure. Neither term should be confused with the broader Saxon concept of THANE or THANAGE, which involve personal status rather than exemption from amercements.

Why It Matters in Research

This entry is a navigational warning more than a substantive legal definition. Its primary value is alerting researchers to a false-friend problem: the string "them" in pre-modern legal manuscripts and printed abridgements may be a technical term, not a pronoun. This matters most in: — Sources dealing with villein tenure, manorial courts, and amercement liability in the 11th through 14th centuries. — Transcriptions of Fleta, Bracton, and related treatises, where Latin and Anglo-Saxon technical terms appear without gloss. — Indexes and digests from the 17th and 18th centuries that carried forward Saxon terminology in alphabetical arrangements (where "them" as a headword is easily overlooked or misread as a printer's error). Burrill's citation to Fleta (lib. 1, c. 47, § 9) is the primary documentary anchor for this term. Researchers tracing the definition should go to that source directly; the Fleta passage defines them as "acquietantiam amerciamentorum sequelæ propriorum suorum" — an acquittance of amercements of the following of one's own [villeins]. The term does not appear as a live legal concept in any modern jurisdiction. Its relevance is purely historical and documentary.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's treats THEM tersely, directing readers to THEME as the principal entry. Burrill's is more useful: it supplies the Latin definition from Fleta and identifies the Saxon linguistic origin, placing the term within the framework of manorial exemptions. Neither dictionary provides case authority or statutory grounding beyond the Fleta citation, which reflects the term's deep antiquity — it belongs to the pre-common-law stratum of English legal history. Both dictionaries agree on the core meaning (acquittance from amercements of villeins) and on the relationship to THEME. Neither discusses any evolution or regional variation of the concept, suggesting it was already a fully extinct term by the time these dictionaries were compiled. Bouvier's inclusion of the entry is likely preservationist — retaining vocabulary needed to read older authorities — rather than reflective of any contemporary legal use. What the historical sources omit: neither dictionary addresses the procedural context in which this acquittance operated, how it was claimed or recorded, or its relationship to other manorial liberties such as sac and soc, toll, team, and infangthief. Researchers needing that framework will need to move beyond the dictionary shelf to treatises on Anglo-Saxon law and manorial tenure.

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