approvement

4 definitions found

approvement - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Approvement \Ap*prove"ment\, n. [Obs.]
     1. Approbation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              I did nothing without your approvement. --Hayward.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Eng. Law) a confession of guilt by a prisoner charged
        with treason or felony, together with an accusation of his
        accomplish and a giving evidence against them in order to
        obtain his own pardon. The term is no longer in use; it
        corresponded to what is now known as turning king's (or
        queen's) evidence in England, and state's evidence in the
        United States. --Burrill. Bouvier.
        [1913 Webster]

  Approvement \Ap*prove"ment\, n. (Old Eng. Law)
     Improvement of common lands, by inclosing and converting them
     to the uses of husbandry for the advantage of the lord of the
     manor. --Blackstone.
     [1913 Webster]

approvement - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  APPROVEMENT, English crim. law. The act by which a person indicted of
  treason or felony, and arraigned for the same, confesses the same before any
  plea pleaded, and accuses others, his accomplices, of the same crime, in
  order to obtain his pardon. 2 This practice is disused. 4 Bl. Com. 330 1
  Phil. Ev. 37. In modern practice, an accomplice is permitted to give
  evidence against his associates. 9 Cowen, R. 707; 2 Virg. Cas. 490; 4 Mass.
  R. 156; 12 Mass. R. 20; 4 Wash. C. C. R. 428; 1 Dev. R. 363; 1 City Hall
  Rec. 8. In Vermont, on a trial for adultery, it was held that a particeps
  criminis was not a competent witness, because no person can be allowed to
  testify his own guilt or turpitude to convict another. N. Chap. R. 9.
  
  

  APPROVEMENT, English law. 1. The inclosing of common land within the lord's
  waste, so as to leave egress and regress to a tenant who is a commoner. 2.
  The augmentation of the profits of land. Stat. of Merton, 20 Hen. VIII.; F.
  N. B. 72 Crompt. Jus. 250; 1 Lilly's Reg. 110.