jan 1, 1498 - purpresture

Description:

A legal term for an encroachment, recorded from <i>a</i>.1190 (OED). It often referred to illegal clearances in waste and woodland, as when Adam de Baggebi claimed in an undated charter that Byland Abbey had encroached on his land: <i>de purprestura quam fecerunt super me versus moram de Baggebi</i> (YRS50/12). In the settlement of a dispute between Fountains and Sawley, ‘assart’ was used almost as a synonym: 1279 <i>quod nulle … ibidem … fiant purpresture vel assarta</i> (YRS90/15) either of which would have been illegal in this case. Similarly, in 1498-9 the officers of Pickering Forest were informed that certain persons had <i>made divers assartes and purprestures within the Forest</i> (NRR1/130). The fact that a Methley tenant was indicted in 1377 because he ‘made a pourpresture by planting a hedge on the waste’ may imply that enclosure alone might constitute such an offence (Th35/152).

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