Obs. exc. Hist. Also 3, 6 thef-, 6 theefe-, 6–7 theif(e- [orig. thef-bote, f. thef, THIEF + bote, BOOT sb.1 Afterwards altered (app. first by Scottish writers) to theftbote: cf. THEFTDOM, THEFTLY.
The early form suggests an OE. *þéof-bót, but this has not been found: the nearest equivalent in the Ags. Laws being þéof-gyld in Laws of Æthelred I. c. 1 § 2, III. c. 4, and of Cnut II. c. 30 § 1.]
The taking of some payment from a thief to secure him from legal prosecution; either the receiving back by the owner of the stolen goods or of some compensation, or the taking of a bribe by a person who ought to have brought the thief to justice.
Nichols (1865), in Britton, in note to quot. 1292, suggests that the word ‘originally signified the legal bote or composition for theft,’ and was then ‘applied to the illegal compounding of theft, or taking money to maintain or connive at such offenders.’ But all our quotations refer to illegal payment, a form of compounding a felony.
α. 1284. Stat. Wall., an. 12 Edw. I., c. 4. De Thefbote, hoc est de emenda furti capta sine consideracione Curiæ Domini Regis.
1292. Britton, I. xxi. § 11. Et puis soit enquis de ceux qi ount pris thefbote.
1369. Liber Assisarum, § 5 (1606), 258 b. Et les Iustices disoient q’ yn home q’ reprist son chattel emblee dun laron ne fuit pas thefbote, eins thefbote fuit proprement ou vn home prist ses chattels dun laron de luy fauourer & mainteiner, et nemy auterment.
1579. Expos. Termes Law, 177 b/2. Thefbote, is when a man taketh any goodes of a theefe to fauour and mainteine him. And not when a man taketh his owne goodes that were stollen from him &c.
β. a. 1450. Sc. Acts Robt. I., c. 9 (1844), I. 109/2 (heading). Of þe takyn of thyftbute [orig. rechatum de latrone].
1515. Sc. Acts Jas. V. (1814), II. 282/2. Gif this complenar … wald concord with the said theif and tak thiftbute and put him fra the Law, in that caice he sall vnderly the Law.
1597. [see next].
1619. Dalton, Country Just., cviii. (1630), 288. Some other seeme to take this for theeftboot and so to be punishable … onely by ransome and imprisonment.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., I. xx. § i. (1699), 106. Theft-boot is committed by securing a Thief against the punishment due by Law.
1745. Univ. Spect., 10 Aug. Yorkshire Tom was committed to Clerkenwell-Bridewell … for Theft-boot, accepting of 17 Guineas and a half, not to prosecute John Ditcher, a notorious Pick-pocket.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. x. 133. The offence of theftbote, which is where the party robbed not only knows the felon, but also takes his goods again, or other amends, upon agreement not to prosecute.
1814. Scott, Wav., xv. The Bailie opined that this transaction would amount to theft-boot, or composition of felony.
1885. Law Times, LXXX. 115/2. The offence of compounding a felony was really the old crime of thefe-bote.
