estreat

1) This is a legal term derived from the Latin <i>extractum</i>. The noun signified a copy made of any original document, but especially of fines or penalties. More generally it came to mean the fines themselves or any payment enforced by law.

The word was employed by officers of the court of Quarter Sessions to enforce the payment of money needed for the repairs or rebuilding of bridges. In 1598, four bridges in Bradford were ‘in great decay’, and the Justices had to assess and rate the responsibility of each township upon an estreate and then levy and collect the money. In 1674, Mary Perrott of Elmswell was fined 4d for keeping her swine in the stubble: her offence was one of five, and the estreates of all such fines ... were forfeited at the manor court.

dates 1598 1674

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