The interpreter, or, Book containing the signification of words wherein is set forth the true meaning of all ... words and terms as are mentioned in the law-writers or statutes ... requiring any exposition or interpretation : a work not only profitable but necessary for such as desire thoroughly to be instructed in the knowledge of our laws, statutes, or other antiquities / collected by John Cowell ...

Y.

YA

YArd lands (Virgata terrae) is a quanti∣ty of land called by this name of the Sax∣on (Gyrdlander) but not so certain a quanti∣ty, as that it is all one in all places: For in some Countries it containeth 20 acres, in some 24. in some 30. as M. Lamberd saith, in his explication of Saxon words, verbo virgata terrae. This Yard land Bracton calleth (virga∣tam terrae, lib. 2. cap. 10. et 37.) but he ex∣presseth no certainty what it containeth.

YE

Year and day (annus et dies) is a time thought in construction of our Common law, fit in many cases to determine a right in one, and to work an usucapion or prescri∣tion in another. As in a case of an estray, if the owner (Proclamations being made) cha∣lenge it not within that time, it is forfeit. So is the year and day given in case of appeal, in case of descent after entry or claim; of no claim upon a fine or writ of right at the Com∣mon law: so of a villein remaining in antient demean, of the death of a man sore bruised or wounded: of Protections; Essoins in re∣spect of the Kings service: of a wreck, and di∣vers other cases, Coke, vol. 6. fol. 107. b. And that touching the death of a man seemeth an imitation of the Civil Law. Nam si morti∣ferè fuerit vulneratus, et posteà post longum in∣tervallum

mortuus fit, inde annum nume∣rabimus secundum Iulianum. l. ait lex n. ad legem Aqui••.

Year, day, and wasto (annus, dies, et va∣stum) is a part of the Kings Prerogative, whereby he challengeth the profits of their lands and tenements for a year and a day, that are attainted of petit treason, or felony, who∣soever be Lord of the Manor, whereunto the lands or tenements do belong, and not only so, but in the end wasteth the tenement, de∣stroyeth the houses, rooteth up the woods, gardens, pasture, and ploweth up meadows, ex∣cept the Lord of the fee agree with him for the redemption of such waste, afterward resto∣ring it to the Lord of the fee, wherof you may read at large, Siawnf. prarog. cap. 16. fol. 44. et seq.

YO

Yoman, seemeth to be one word made by contraction of two Danish words (young men) which I gather out of Canutus Charter of the Forest set out out by M. Manwood, parte prim. fol. prim. num. 2. in these words. Sunt sub quolibet horum quatuor ex mediocribus ho∣minibus quos Angli Legespend) ••uncupant, Dani vero (yong men) vecaut, locati, qui cu∣ram et onus tum vi••id••s tum veneris suscipiant. These M. Cambden in his Britan. pag. 105. placeth next in order to Gentlemen, calling them (Iugenuos) whose opinion the Statute af∣firmeth, anno 6 R. 2. cap. 4 Whereunto adde the Statute, anno 20. ejusdem Regis, cap. 2. Sir Thomas Smith, in his Repub. Anglor, lib. prim. cap. 23. calleth him a Yoman, whom our Laws call legalem hominem: which (as he saith) is in English a ••ee man born, that may di∣spend of his own free land, in yearly revenue, to the sum of 40 shillings sterling. Of these he writeth a good large discourse, touching their estate and use in this Common wealth. The former etymologie of the name he liketh not, making question whether it come of the Dutch (Yonger) yea or not, which in the Low-countries signifieth a mean Gentleman, or a gay fellow; but he that hath added the marginal notes to that book, seemeth to draw it from the Saxons (Geman) which signifieth a maried man. M. Verstegan in his restitu∣tion of decayed intelligence, cap. 10. writeth that (Gemen) among the antient Teutonicks, and (Germein) among the modern, signifieth as much, as common, and that the first Letter G. is in this word, as in many others turned into Y. and so writeth Yemen; and that there∣fore Yemen, or Yeomen signifieth so much as Commoner. Yoman signifieth an Officer in the Kings house, which is in the middle place be∣tween the Sergeant and the Groom: as Yoman of the Chaundry; and Yoman of the Scullery, an. 33 Hen. 8. cap. 12. Yoman of the Crown, anno 3 Ed. 4. cap. 5. & anno 22 ejusdem, cap. 1. & anno 4 H. 7. cap. 7. This word (Yong∣men) is used for Yomen in the Statute, anno 33 H. 8. cap. 10.

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