Messuage - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition messuage

Definition :

Messuage [fr. messuagium, Law Lat., formed perhaps fr. mesnage, by mistake of the n, in court hand, for u, they being written alike; or fr. maison, Fr.], a dwelling-house with its outbuildings and curtilage and some adjacent land assigned to the use thereof. See Co. Litt. 5 b, and Mr. Hargrave's note, as to what passes under the word 'messuage.' In Monks v. Dykes, (1839) 4 M&W 567, Parke, B., said that 'a messuage and a dwelling-house are substantially the same thing, and therefore if rooms be so occupied as to be in fact a dwelling-house, they may be described as a messuage.'

In Scotland the principal dwelling-house without a barony, Bell's Dict

Messuage, a dwelling house together with the cartilage, including any out buildings, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn