Pound in United Kingdom

Concept of Pound

The following is an old definition of Pound [1], a term which has several meanings:1. Twenty shillings. In calculating the rates of duties, the pound sterling shall be taken as of the value of four dollars, eighty-six cents, and six and one-half mills. The Colonial pound, in Georgia, contained fifteen hundred and forty-seven grains; in Virginia, Massa-chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, twelve hundred and eighty-nine grains; in New, Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, one thousand and thirty-one and a quarter grains; in New York, and North Carolina, nine hundred and sixty-six grains. . . In New England, six shillings, or one hundred and eight coppers, made a dollar, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, ninety pence; in New York, and North Carolina, ninety -six coppers. In Pennsylvania currency, a pound was equivalent to $2.662/3, a shilling to 131/3 cents, and sixpence to 62/3 cents; although the latter passed for 121/2 and 61/4 cents respectively . It is suggested that in these values is found the explanation of the origin of the practice by which juries in that State award 61/4 cents (a six-pence) as nominal damages – which carry full costs; and the origin of the statutory limit from which no appeal may be had from the judgment of a justice of the peace, to wit, $5.331/3, that is, two pounds. 2. A legal inclosure for the confinement of estrays, or the custody of goods distrained. An enclosed piece of land, secured by a firm structure of stone, or of posts and timber, placed in the ground. Like the grant of a mill, house, etc., carries with it the land on which it stands as parcel of the subject- matter of the grant. Necessarily requires, land, and is in its nature perpetual. The board of supervisors of San Francisco granted to one A., and his assigns, the exclusive privilege, for twenty years, of having and removing the carcasses of dead animals, not slain for food, subject to certain sanitary regulations, and with the provision that the keeper of the public pound should notify A. to remove animals destroyed thei’ein. Held, that the plaintiff could restrain the pound-keeper from delivering carcasses to any other person. Impound. 1. To confine in a pound; as, an animal estray

Alternative Meaning

To place in the custody of the law; as, an instrument discovered, in the course of a trial, to be a forgery. An original will is said to be impounded with the register of wills. An executor may impound a legacy to set off a debt due by the legatee. Things distrained must be first carried to some pound. Once impounded, even though without cause, the owner may not break the pound and take them out: for they are then in the custody of the law. If a live distress of animals be impounded in a common pound-overt (i, o., open overhead), the owner must take notice at his peril; but if in a special pound- overt, constituted for the particular purpose, the distrainor must give notice to the owner; and in both cases the owner is bound to feed the beasts. But if put in a pound-covert (i. e., closed), in a stable or the like, the distrainor must feed them. Being in the custody of the law, taking the distress back by force is a ” rescous,” for which pound-breach, a remedy in damages, lies in the distrainor. See Distress. Pound-master. The keeper of a pound. Poundage. 1. Money paid for the release of animals impounded

Alternative Meaning

An allowance to a sheriff of a percentage upon the amount levied under an execution. Whether referable to a percentage upon each pound sterling collected, or to the charge for keeping goods impounded, is not settled.

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Notes and References

1. Meaning of Pound 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)

English Law: Pound in the Past

A place enclosed to keep strayed animals in. 5 Pick. 514; 4 Pick. 258; 9 Pick. 14. [1][rtbs name=”history-of-english-law”]

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Notes and References

1. Partialy, this information about pound is based on the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary, 1848 edition. There is a list of terms of the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary, including pound.

See Also