Black-mail in United Kingdom

Concept of Black-mail

The following is an old definition of Black-mail [1], a term which has several meanings:1. Rent reserved in work, grain, or the baser money. Opposed, white rent: rent paid in silver. A rent in grain, cattle, money, or other thing, anciently paid to men of influence, in the north of England, for protection against robbers. By statute 43 Eliz. (1601), o. 13, for preventing rapine on the northern borders, to imprison or carry away any subject in order to ransom him . . or to give or talre any money or contribution, there called black- mail, in order to secure goods from rapine, is felony wilthout benefit of clergy

Alternative Meaning

In common parlance, extortion – the exaction of money for the performance of a duty, the prevention of an injury, or the exercise of an influence. Imports an unlawful service and an involuntary payment. Not unirequently, the money is extorted by threats, or by operating upon the fears or the credulity, or by promises to conceal or offers to expose the weakness, the folly, or the crime of the victim. There is moral compulsion which neither necessity nor fear nor credulity can resist. The term, as universally regarded, implies an unlawful act; and though, from its indefiniteness and comprehensiveness, the offense is not classified as a distinct crime, it is nevertheless believed to be criminal. Therefore, to charge a man with ” black-mailing ” is equivalent to charging him with a crime. Worcester says that ” black-mail ” originally meant the performance of labor, the payment of copper coin, or the delivery of certain things in kind, as rent; and that the word was contrasted with ‘ ‘ white rent,” which was paid in silver. Spelman attributes the term “black” to the color of the coin; Jamiesen to its illegality. Dean Swift used the term to signify ” hush money,” ” money extorted under the threat of exposure in print for an alleged offense.” Bartlett is the first lexicographer who confines its meaning to that sense, and the use of it to this country. . . The meaning is not legally confined to extortion by threats or other morally compulsory measure. The sense intended in any given case should be determined by a jury. See Extortion; Threatening Letter.

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Notes and References

1. Meaning of Black-mail provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)

Concept of Black Mail

Traditional meaning of black mail [1] in scots law: 1. A tribute paid by the inhabitants of the northern counties of England to some border chieftain to be protected from the depredations of the Scotch border-thieves and moss-troopers. 2. Black rents: rents reserved in cattle, provisions, or labor, as distinguished from white rents, payable in silver. [rtbs name=”scottish-law”]

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Notes and References

1. Based on A concise law dictionary of words, phrases and maxims, “Black Mail”, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911, United States. This term and/or definition may be absolete. It is also called the Stimson’s Law dictionary, based on a glossary of terms, included Black Mail.

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