Toll and team

Last updated March 07, 2019

Toll and team (also spelled thol and theam) were related privileges granted by the Crown to landowners under Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman law. First known from a charter of around 1023,^[1] the privileges usually appeared as part of a standard formula in charters granting privileges to estate-holders, along the lines of "with sac and soc, toll and team, infangthief and outfangthief" and so on.^[2]

The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their sub-divisions. Legally ill-defined, the term has different meanings depending on context. It is used to designate the monarch in either a personal capacity, as Head of the Commonwealth, or as the king or queen of his or her realms. It can also refer to the rule of law; however, in common parlance 'The Crown' refers to the functions of government and the civil service.

Anglo-Saxon law is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early Scandinavian law and Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought. However, Anglo-Saxon law codes are distinct from other early Germanic legal statements – known as the leges barbarorum, in part because they were written in Anglo-Saxon instead of in Latin. The laws of the Anglo-Saxons were the second in medieval Western Europe after those of the Irish to be expressed in a language other than Latin.

Infangthief and outfangthief were privileges granted to feudal lords under Anglo-Saxon law by the kings of England. They permitted their bearers to execute summary justice on thieves within the borders of their own manors or fiefs.

Toll was the right granted to a landowner to impose a payment on the sale or passage of goods or cattle on his lands, or alternatively to be exempt from the tolls of others.^[2]

Team was originally a grant of jurisdiction, allowing the holding of a court to judge people accused of wrongful possession of goods or cattle, or granting the right to obtain the profits from such a court.^[2]^[3]^[4] The term has the literal meaning in Old English of "line", referring to the tracing of a line of ownership. By the 12th century, however, the original meaning had largely been forgotten as the institution of team had fallen into obsolescence. It continued to be used as part of the standard formula of rights in charters but was given various alternative meanings by legal writers.^[1]

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References

1 2 "team, n.". Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition. Oxford University Press. 1989.
1 2 3 Arnold-Baker, Charles (2001). The Companion to British History. Routledge. p. 1222. ISBN 9780415185837.
↑ Fairweather, Janet (2005). Liber Eliensis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth. Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843830153.
↑ Davies, Wendy; Fouracre, Paul, eds. (2002). Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 283. ISBN 9780521522250.

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[OED-1] 1 2 "team, n.". Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition. Oxford University Press. 1989.

[Arnold-Baker-2] 1 2 3 Arnold-Baker, Charles (2001). The Companion to British History. Routledge. p. 1222. ISBN 9780415185837.

[3] Fairweather, Janet (2005). Liber Eliensis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth. Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843830153.

[4] Davies, Wendy; Fouracre, Paul, eds. (2002). Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 283. ISBN 9780521522250.