Definition
In old European law, the tur (also rendered as "tур" in variant spellings) was a form of punitive or correctional instrument or proceeding used against persons deemed disruptive to public order — particularly old men, scolds, and unquiet women. Historical usage places it alongside the pillory and other infamous punishments as a mechanism of public correction and social discipline. Its precise form varied by locality and period, but it functioned as both a physical instrument of punishment and, in some usages, a formal proceeding to which cases of social disorder could be referred.
In a secondary medieval procedural sense, the term appears in connection with the practice of referring dubious legal cases to a body of experienced elder men, who would inform judges of local custom and practice. This consultative function overlaps with the institution of recognitors or local jurors of custom, and should not be confused with the punitive instrument of the same name.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Either of two species of wild goat native to the Caucasus — the West Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica) or the East Caucasian tur (Capra cylindricornis).
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The urus — a large extinct wild ox.
The legal meaning of tur has no connection to either the zoological or the common English senses. A researcher encountering the term in medieval legal texts or proceedings should not expect any overlap with its ordinary English usage. The legal tur belongs entirely to the vocabulary of early European public law and social correction.
Common Confusion
The dual function recorded by Burrill — (1) an instrument or proceeding of correction and (2) a consultative referral to elder men — can be conflated, but they appear to represent distinct applications of the same term across different legal contexts and periods. Researchers should read the surrounding text carefully to determine which function is at issue. The corrective/punitive sense is the more commonly cited.
The tur should not be confused with the cucking stool or ducking stool, which served similar social disciplinary purposes against scolds and unquiet women in English law. These were distinct instruments, though they occupied the same punitive register and are sometimes grouped together in historical accounts of medieval and early modern correction.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in sources treating old European law — continental and English — and is unlikely to surface in post-medieval legal texts. Researchers working in Lambard's Eirenarcha (cited by Burrill) and similar treatises on the peace-keeping functions of justices will encounter it in the context of social order offenses. Because Burrill's entry is fragmentary, the full passage from Lambard should be consulted directly for context.
The punitive instrument sense is relevant to historians of gender and law: the tur, like the cucking stool and scold's bridle, targeted women explicitly as a recognized class of offenders against public quiet. Researchers tracing the legal category of the "common scold" (communis rixatrix) will find the tur situated within that tradition.
The consultative sense — referral to elder men for custom — connects to broader research on customary law adjudication and the role of local knowledge in medieval courts. This function parallels, but is not identical to, the grand jury, the jury of presentment, or the institution of recognitors. Cross-referencing entries on those terms will clarify the distinction.
The fragmentary condition of the Burrill entry means that researchers should not treat it as authoritative on its own. Burrill preserves enough to establish the term's existence and general function, but the entry is visibly incomplete and should be supplemented with primary sources.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal historical dictionary source for this term in the Law Mind corpus. The entry is incomplete as preserved — the text breaks off mid-sentence — but it establishes the following: (1) the tur was used in old European law as a punitive instrument ranked alongside the pillory; (2) its targets included old men, scolds, and unquiet women; (3) it was used for multiple purposes beyond those specifically named; and (4) Lambard's Eirenarcha, book 1, chapter 12, is the cited primary authority.
No other major historical legal dictionaries in the standard canon — not Black's, not Bouvier's, not Tomlin's — carry a substantive entry for tur in this sense, which reflects how deeply archaic the term was by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Burrill's coverage, even in its truncated form, is the most accessible secondary reference available in English-language legal lexicography.
Jurisdictional Note
The tur is a term of old European law generally and does not map onto any modern jurisdiction. Its historical usage appears primarily in English and continental sources treating medieval and early modern public order. Researchers should not expect to find it operative in any post-seventeenth-century legal system.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Medieval Courts and Procedure; Public Punishment and Correction; Common Scold