hamesucken, † -soken O. E. and Sc. Law.
(ˈheɪmsʌk(ə)n)
Forms: 1 hámsócn, 3 hamsokne, 4 hamsokene, homsokne; Hist. 7–9 hamsoken, homesoken; Sc. 7 haimsuckin, -suken, 8 -sucken, 7– hamesucken.
[OE., f. hám home, dwelling + sócn fem., seeking, visiting, attack, assault, ON. sókn attack.]
1. The crime of assaulting a person in his own house or dwelling-place. Now only in Scotch Law.
| a 1000 Laws of Edmund ii. c. 3 Be mund-brice and be ham-socnum. c 1030 Laws of Cnut ii. c. 62 (63) Gif hwa ham-socne ᵹewyrce ᵹebete þæt mid fif pundan. c 1250 Bracton De. Leg. Angl. iii. ii. xxiii. (Rolls) II. 464 Ham⁓sokne, quæ dicitur invasio domus contra pacem domini regis. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 95 Hamsokene oþer Ham⁓fare, a rese i-made in hous. c 1575 Balfour Practicks (1754) 541 Na man may challenge ane uther of hamesucken, bot for assailȝeing him at his awin proper house and dwelling-place. 1753 Stewart's Trial 123 In the crime of hamesucken, he and his accomplices might be all equally principals. 1773 Erskine Inst. Law Scotl. 719 Haimesucken..is the crime of beating or assaulting a person within his own house. 1827 Scott Jrnl. I. 367 Half a dozen Selkirk processes, among others one which savours of Hamesucken. |
2. A franchise of holding pleas of this offence and receiving the penalties imposed on the offender; also the penalty or mulct itself. (By English legal antiquaries variously misunderstood and erroneously explained.)
| 1020 Charter of Cnut in Earle Land Charters (1888) 233 Þæt he beo his saca and socne wyrðe and grið bryces, and ham socne and forstealles and infangenes þeofes. c 1250 Gloss. Law Terms in Rel. Ant. I. 33 Hamsokne, quite de entrer en autri ostel á force. c 1290 Fleta i. xlvii. §18 (1647) 63 Hamsokne [signat] quietantiam miserocordiæ intrusionis in alienam domum vi & injuste. 1579 Rastell Expos. diff. Words 132 Home soken (or hame soken), that is, to bee quite of amerciaments for entring into houses violently and without licence, and contrary to the peace of the king. And that you holde plea of such trespasse done in your Court, and in your lande. 1717 Blount's Law Dict. (ed. 3), Homesoken, Hamsoken..the Privilege or Freedom which every Man hath in his House; and he who invades that Freedom is properly said facere Homesoken. This I take to be what we now call Burglary. Ibid., It is also taken for an Impunity to those who commit this crime. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xvi. 223 Burglary, or nocturnal housebreaking..which by an antient law was called hame⁓secken, as it is in Scotland to this day. 1861 Riley Liber Albus Gloss. 326 Hampsokne, literally House-protection, i.e. the protection from assault afforded by a man's house. |