| |
| | Forfeiture in England and Colonial America |
 | | By the seventeenth century crimes that were considered felonies included murder, manslaughter, witchcraft, larceny, abduction of an heiress with intent to marry her, forgery of a deed or testimonial, transportation of a sheep, and malicious cutting of another man's tongue or his eyes [Veall, 1970:2]. |
 | | While the modern legal definition of an escheat has to do with property falling into state receivership resulting from its abandonment, the failure to have a proper heir, or death intestate, in the latter twelfth century there were two forms of escheat. |
 | | Rutland [1955:12] states that the colonists' desire for religious freedom was an important factor in the decision to move away from those English practices of which the colonists disapproved. |
| www.fsu.edu /~crimdo/forfeiture.html (14355 words) |
|