The hall or place of meeting of a guild, or gild. The place of meeting of a municipal corporation. 3 Steph. Comm. 173, note. The mercantile or commercial gilds of the Saxons are supposed to have given rise to the present municipal corporations of England, whose place of meeting is still called the "Guildhall." Guildhall sittings. The sittings held in the Guildhall of the city … [Read more...]

In old European law. A provision of necessary things. Spelman. A furnishing or garnishment … [Read more...]

An instrument for decapitation used in France for the infliction of the death penalty on convicted criminals consisting essentially of a heavy and weighted knife-blade moving perpendicularly between grooved posts which is made to fall from a considerable height upon the neck of the sufferer immovably fixed in position to receive the impact. … [Read more...]

One who had the custody of the royal mansions. … [Read more...]

In criminal law. That quality which imparts criminality to a motive or act, and renders the person amenable to punishment by the law. That disposition to violate the law which has manifested itself by some act already done. The opposite of innocence. See Ruth. Inst. b. 1, c. 18, … [Read more...]