Legal Articles

Sax. Kin or kindred. I > L. 691

See INSANITY.

A wharf for the lading and unlading of merchandise from vessels. More com- monly spelled “quay.” An instrument for fastening and opening a lock. This appears as an English word as early as the time of Bracton, in the phrase “cone et keye,” being applied to women at a certain age, to denote the capacity of having charge of household affairs. Bract, fol. 866. See CONE AND KEY.

Those portions of the seas, adjacent to the coasts of Great Britain, which are inclosed within headlands so as to be cut off from the open sea by imaginary straight lines drawn from one promontory to another.

A portion of grain given to a mill-servant from tenants who were bound to grind their grain at such mill.

A quay, or key.

A toll paid for loading and unloading merchandise at a key or wharf. Rowan v. Portland, 8 B. Mou. (Ky.) 253.KEYS 687 KING’S BENCH

An officer of the court of king’s bench, usually called “the master of the crown office,” whose duty it is to tile informations at the suit of a private subject by direction of the court. 4 Bl. Comm. 308, 300 ; 4 Steph. Comm. 374, 378.

In English law. The next personal dignity after the nobility. Of knights there are several orders and degrees. The first in rank are knights of the Garter, instituted by Itichard I. and improved by Edward III. in 1344; next follows a knight banneret; then come knights of the Bath, instituted by Henry IV., and revived by George I.; and they were so called from a ceremony of bathing the night before their creation. Tbe last order are knights bachelors, who, though the lowest, are yet the most ancient, order of knighthood; for we find that King Alfred conferred this order upon his son Atlielstan. 1 Bl. Comm. 403.