Estrays - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition estrays

Definition :

Estrays, such valuable animals as are found wandering in a manor or lordship, the owner whereof is not known; in which case the law gives them to the Sovereign, and they now most commonly belong to the lord of the manor by special grant from the Crown. But they must be proclaimed in the church and two market towns next adjoining to the place where they are found; and then, if no person claim them, after proclamation and a year and a day passed, they belong to the Sovereign or his substitute, without a redemption, even though the owner was a minor or under any other legal incapacity. The doctrine of estrays is only applicable to animals domit' natur', 2 Steph. Com.

A valuable tame animal founds wandering and ownerless; an animal that his escaped from its owner and wanders about, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 572.