What is "statute merchant"

Statute \Stat"ute\ (-[-u]t), n. [F. statut, LL. statutum, from L. statutus, p. p. of statuere to set, station, ordain, fr. status position, station, fr. stare, statum, to stand. See Stand, and cf. Constitute, Destitute.]

1. An act of the legislature of a state or country, declaring, commanding, or prohibiting something; a positive law; the written will of the legislature expressed with all the requisite forms of legislation; -- used in distinction from common law. See Common law, under Common, a.
   --Bouvier.

   Note: Statute is commonly applied to the acts of a legislative body consisting of representatives. In monarchies, the laws of the sovereign are called edicts, decrees, ordinances, rescripts, etc. In works on international law and in the Roman law, the term is used as embracing all laws imposed by competent authority. Statutes in this sense are divided into statutes real, statutes personal, and statutes mixed; statutes real applying to immovables; statutes personal to movables; and statutes mixed to both classes of property.

2. An act of a corporation or of its founder, intended as a permanent rule or law; as, the statutes of a university.

3. An assemblage of farming servants (held possibly by statute) for the purpose of being hired; -- called also statute fair. [Eng.] Cf. 3d Mop, 2.
   --Halliwell.

   Statute book, a record of laws or legislative acts.
   --Blackstone.

   Statute cap, a kind of woolen cap; -- so called because enjoined to be worn by a statute, dated in 1571, in behalf of the trade of cappers. [Obs.]
   --Halliwell.

   Statute fair. See Statute, n., 3, above.

   Statute labor, a definite amount of labor required for the public service in making roads, bridges, etc., as in certain English colonies.

   Statute merchant (Eng. Law), a bond of record pursuant to the stat. 13 Edw. I., acknowledged in form prescribed, on which, if not paid at the day, an execution might be awarded against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor, and the obligee might hold the lands until out of the rents and profits of them the debt was satisfied; -- called also a pocket judgment. It is now fallen into disuse.
   --Tomlins.
   --Bouvier.

   Statute mile. See under Mile.

   Statute of limitations (Law), a statute assigning a certain time, after which rights can not be enforced by action.

   Statute staple, a bond of record acknowledged before the mayor of the staple, by virtue of which the creditor may, on nonpayment, forthwith have execution against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor, as in the statute merchant. It is now disused.
   --Blackstone.

   Syn: Act; regulation; edict; decree. See Law.

Statute merchant and statute staple are two old forms of security, long obsolete in English practice, though references to them still occur in some modern statutes.

The former security was first created by the 1283 Statute of Merchants, or Statute of Acton Burnell (named after Acton Burnell in Shropshire, the place where Parliament met and passed the statute) and amplified by the 1285 Statute of Merchants 1285, whence its name, and the latter by an act of 1353, which provided that in every staple (i.e. public mart) the seal of the staple should be sufficient validity for a bond of record acknowledged and witnessed before the mayor of the staple. They were originally permitted only among traders, for the benefit of commerce, but afterwards extended by an act of Henry VIII (1532) to all subjects, whether traders or not. The creditor under either form of security was allowed to seize the goods and hold the lands of a defaulting debtor until satisfaction of his debt. While he held the lands he was termed tenant by statute merchant or by statute staple. In addition to the loss of his goods and lands the debtor was liable to be imprisoned. Statute merchant, owing to the summary method of enforcing payment, was sometimes known as pocket judgment. Both were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863.

An example of a suit of Statute Merchant can be seen in the Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1430, where John Salter, citizen & tanner of York, John Wyot, vicar of St Nicholas, Mikelgate, John Yoman, (the latter 2 as executors of Henry Ravenswath) are parties.