Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 5–6 tresaill, 6 tresaioul, 7–8 tresaile, 8 tresail, 6–9 tresayle. [AF., formed after BESAIEL; cf. F. trisaïeul (16th c. in Godef., Compl.), f. tri-, TRI- + aïeul grandfather, AIEL.] A grandfather’s grandfather; a great-great-grandfather.
1491. Ordin. Yarmouth, in H. Swinden, Gt. Yarmouth (1772), 135. King Henry tresaill of our sovereigne lord the kyng that now is.
1550. J. Coke, Eng. & Fr. Heralds, § 35 (1877), 66. His [Charlmayne’s] tresaioul, named Pepyn.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Cosenage..., is a writ, that lyeth where the tresaile (that is, tritavus, the father of the besaile, or of the great grandfather) is seysed in his demesn as of fee, at the day of his death, of certaine lands or tenements, and dyeth: and then a straunger entreth and abateth.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. x. 186. If it mounts one degree higher, to the tresayle or grandfather’s grandfather,… the writ is called a writ of cosinage, or de consanguineo.
b. Writ of tresayle: see quot.
1772. Jacob’s Law Dict. (ed. 9), Tresayle, the name of a writ, to be sued, on ouster, by abatement, on the death of the grandfather’s grandfather; now obsolete.
1848. in Wharton, Law Lex.
