arch. or dial. Forms: 3 birelage, birlawe, (birelegia), 5–7 byrelaw(e, 6 byerlaw, 6–7 berlaw, burlaw, 7–8 birlaw, 9 bourlaw, dial. byar law, 6– byrlaw; also corrupted, esp. in comb., into 6 byerley, byrla, birla, 7 birlay, burlie, 7–8 birley, 8–9 birlie, 9 burley; see BIRLEY, BOURLAW, BURLEY, BYLAW. [app. a. ON. *býjar-lög, f. býjar gen. case of bý-r (= BY sb.), dial. variant of bǽr (bær) village, town, farm + lög (pl. of lag) law, ‘law community, communion, also a law district’ (Vigf.); cf. BY-LAW.
(The existence of *býjar-, bǽrjar-lög in ON. is scarcely proved by the occurrence of bæjar-lögmaðr ‘a town justice’ in Diplomat. Norvegicum of 13–14th c. (Vigf.), as a ‘by’ might have its own lögmaðr ‘lawman’ without having its own special law.]
1. The local custom or ‘law’ of a township, manor, or rural district, whereby disputes as to boundaries, trespass of cattle, etc., were settled without going into the law courts; a law or custom established in such a district by common consent of all who held land therein, and having binding force within its limits. Hence byrlaw-court and BYRLAW-MAN, -GRAYVE, q.v.
These laws regulated such matters as the dates of plowing, the turning out of cattle, the number of cattle turned out by each tenant of common land, the fines for trespass and damage done to fences, etc., the keeping up of fences, sea banks, the pound, the ‘balks’ in fields, and the like.
1257. Composition betw. Convent & W. de Furness, in Coucher Bk. of Furness Abbey (1887), 458. Si contingat averia ipsius Abbatis vel succ. suorum dampnum facere in bladis vel pratis ipsius Willelmi,… [or vice versa] … emendabitur ex utraque parte secundum Birelag’ absque placito.
1412. Tabula Sententialis, ibid., 84. Ex utraque parte fient emendæ secundum Birelegia absque placito.
1292. Assize 20 Edw. I. (Devon) Abbreviatio Plac. 286 b. Quod quidem factum [destruction of the parson’s crops] manifeste est injuriosum et non per aliquod Birlawe sustinendum, consideratum est quod, [etc.].
a. 1400. Glanville, Reg. Maj. Exceptis burlawis [Skene trans. Birlaw Courts] que per consensum vicinorum concurrunt.
1483. Cath. Angl., 32. A Byrelawe, agraria, plebiscitum.
1500. Ortus Voc., in Cath. Angl., 32, note. Plebiscitum, statutum populi; anglice, a byrelawe.
1597. Skene, Verb. Sign., Laws of Burlaw ar maid & determined be consent of neichtbors, elected and chosen be common consent, in the courts called the Byrlaw courts. In the quhilk cognition is taken of complaintes, betuixt nichtbour & nichtbour. The quhilk men sa chosen, as judges & arbitrators to the effect foresaid, ar commonly called Byrlaw-men.
1609. Hume, Admon., in Wodrow Soc. Misc. (1844), 587. Comparing them to Birlay Courtis, where is much jangling.
1883. D. Graham, Wks., II. 102, note. This birley-court consisted of certain parties in the barony who looked after local affairs.
1881. W. Dickinson, Cumbrld. Gloss., 2nd Supp. (E. D. S.), Byar law, Byr law, a custom or law established in a township or village.
1876. Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), [The bellman at Tollerton used to say] ‘Aweay to t’ Bahlaw’ [i.e., to a parish meeting].
2. transf. A district having its own byrlaw court, or local law.
1850. N. & Q., Ser. I. II. 92/2. The above are the four byerlaws or divisions of the parish, and the Churchwardens used separately to collect in their respective byerlaws.
In the form Bierlow this word is common as an appendage to place-names in Yorkshire: Brampton Bierlow, Ecclesall Bierlow, Brightside Bierlow. These are the names of somewhat extensive parishes; it is to be presumed that the various hamlets forming each were originally connected by their resort to a district court of justice.
