OF THE 
Law-Terms: 
A 
DISCOURSE 
Written by 
The Learned ANTIQUARY. 
Sir HENRY SPELMAN, Kt. 
WHEREIN 
The Laws of the Jews, Grecians, 
Romans, Saxons and Normans, rela­
ting to this Subject, are fully ex­
plained.

LONDON, 
Printed for Matthew Gillyflower, in 
Westminster-Hall. 1684.





I purpose not to take it upon any
man's word: but, searching for 
the fountain, will, if I can, deduce 
them from thence, beginning with 
their definition. 
 The Terms be certain portions of the year in which onely the King's Justices 
hold plea, in the high Temporal Courts, 
of Causes belonging to their Juris
diction, 



in the place thereto assigned, according 
to the ancient Rites and Custums of the
Kingdom.


The definition divides it self, and 
offers these parts to be consider'd. 

1. The names they bear. 
2. The original they come of. 
3. The time they continue.
4. The persons they are held by.
5. The causes they deal with.
6. The place they are kept in.
7. The rites they ar performed with.

 




Of the Names of the Terms. 


THE word Terminus is of the 
Greek τέρμα, which signifieth the 
Bound, End, or Limit of a thing, 
here particularly of the time for Law-­
matters. In the Civil-Law it also 
signifieth a day set to the Defendant, 
and in that sense doth Bracton and o­
thers sometimes use it. Mat. Paris 
calleth the Sheriff's Turn, Terminum 
Vicecomitis, and in the addition to the 
M: SS: Laws of King Inas, Terminus 
is applied to the Hundred-Court; as 
also in a Charter of Hen. 1. prescrib­
ing the time of holding the Court. 
And we ordinarily use it for any set 
portion of time, as of Life, Years, 
Lease, &c.

The space between the Terms, is 
named Vacation,  à Vacando, as being 
Leasure from Law-business, by Lati­
nists Justitium &agrave: jure stando, because 
the Law is now at a stop or stand.