Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

HEIR TESTAMENTARY

HERALD

567

for; it is not found in any Anglo-Saxon law extant. Wharton. HENCHMAN. A page; an attendant; a herald. HENEDPENNY. A customary pay ment of money instead of hens at Christmas a composition for eggs. Cowell. HENFARE. A fine for flight on account of murder. Domesday Book. HENGHEN. In Saxon law. A prison, a gaol, or house of correction. HENGWYTE. Sax. In old English law. An acquittance from a fine for hang ing a thief. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 47, § 17. HENRICUS VETUS. Henry the Old, or Elder. King Henry I. is so called in an cient English chronicles and charters, to dis tinguish him from the subsequent kings of that name. Spelman. HEORDFiETE, or HUDEFiEST. In Saxon law. A master of a family, keeping house, distinguished from a lower class of freemen, viz., folgeras, (folgarii,) who had no habitations of their own, but were house retainers of their lords. HEORDPENNY. Peter-pence, (q. v.) HEORDWERCH. In Saxon law. The service of herdsmen, done at the will of their lord. HEPTARCHY. A government exercised by seven persons, or a nation divided into seven governments. In the year 560, seven different monarchies had been formed in England by the German tribes, namely, that of Kent by the Jutes; those of Sussex, Wes sex, and Essex by the Saxons; and those of East Anglia, Bernicia, and Deira by the An gles. To these were added, about the year 586, an eighth, called the "Kingdom of Mer cia," also founded by the Angles, and com prehending nearly the whole of the heart of the kingdom. These states formed what has been designated the "Anglo-Saxon Octar chy," or more commonly, though not so cor rectly, the "Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy," from the custom of speaking of Deira and Bernicia under the single appellation of the "Kingdom of Northumberland." Wharton. HERALD. In ancient law, a herald was a diplomatic messenger who carried messages between kings or states, and especially proc lamations of war, peace, or truce. In En glish law, a herald is an officer whose dutv is to keep genealogical lists and tables, ad

HEIR TESTAMENTARY. In the civil law. One who is named and appointed heir in the testament of the decedent. This name distinguishes him from a legal heir, (one up on whom the law casts the succession,) and from a conventional heir, (one who takes it by virtue of a previous contract or settle ment.) HE IB UNCONDITIONAL. In the civil law. One who inherits without any reservation, or without making an inventory, whether his acceptance be express or tacit. Distinguished from heir teneftciary, (q. v.) HEIRDOM. Succession by inheritance. HEIRESS. A female heir to a person having an estate of inheritance. When there are more than one, they are called "co-heir esses," or "co-heirs." HEIRS. A word used in deeds of convey ance, (either solely, or in connection with others,) where it is intended to pass a fee. HEIRS OP THE BODY. An heir be gotten or borne by the person referred to; a lineal descendant. The terms "natural heirs" and "heirs of the body," in a will, and by way of executory devise, are eonsideied as of the same legal import. 19 Conn. 112. HEIRSHIP. The quality or condition of being heir, or the relation between the heir and his ancestor. HEIRSHIP MOVABLES. In Scotch law. The movables which go to the heir, and not to the executor, that the land may not go to the heir completely dismantled, such as the best of furniture, horses, cows, etc., but not fungibles. Bell. HELL. The name given to a place under the exchequer chamber, where the king's debtors were confined. Rich. Diet. HELM. Tbatch or straw; a covering for the head in war; a coat of arms bearing a crest; the tiller or handle of the rudder of a ship. HELOWE-WALL. The end-wall cover ing and defending the rest of the building. Paroch. Antiq. 573. HELSING. A Saxon brass coin, of the value of a half-penny. HEMOLDBOEH, or HELMEL BORCiH. A title to possession. The ad mission of this old Norse term into the laws of the Conqueror is difficult to be accounted

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