Definition
Uttol is an archaic English legal term, encountered primarily in historical customs and toll records, referring to the outward toll — that is, the toll or duty charged upon goods being carried out of a market, town, or jurisdiction. It is the counterpart to intol, which designated the toll levied on goods brought in. Together, intol and uttol formed a paired system of market dues that governed the movement of merchandise into and out of a locality.
Common Confusion
Uttol should not be confused with the broader category of tolls generally (which encompassed a wide range of duties on passage, goods, and persons) or with specific toll types such as stallage (the right to erect a stall in a market) or pontage (toll for use of a bridge). Uttol is specifically the outward component of the intol/uttol pair governing goods leaving a market or jurisdiction.
Why It Matters in Research
Uttol is almost never encountered as a standalone term in legal sources. Bouvier's Law Dictionary treats it as a cross-reference only, directing readers immediately to the combined entry INTOL AND UTTOL. Researchers should follow that path rather than treating uttol as an independently defined concept. The term appears primarily in medieval and early modern English legal and manorial records — toll registers, market charters, borough customs, and fee farm grants — where the paired duties of intol and uttol were enumerated as part of the lord's or town's revenue rights.
Because uttol is a term of manorial and commercial custom rather than common law doctrine, it carries little presence in the standard common law treatise tradition. Researchers working in English local history, manorial court records, or the history of market regulation will encounter it more frequently than those working in case law. In the Law Mind corpus, its significance lies almost entirely in the historical record of local commercial regulation rather than in judicial opinions or statutory law.
Be alert to variant spellings in primary sources. Medieval and early modern scribal practice was inconsistent, and related toll terms appear in numerous orthographic forms across different regional records.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's sole contribution is a cross-reference: "See INTOL AND UTTOL." This reflects the practical reality that uttol has no independent legal meaning separable from its paired counterpart. The term is defined by its relationship to intol — one cannot exist meaningfully without the other. Historical dictionaries outside of Bouvier offer little additional coverage, reflecting uttol's status as a term of local custom rather than general jurisprudence. Researchers seeking substantive treatment should consult the INTOL AND UTTOL entry directly.