Category:Sequestration

Seq`ues*tra"tion, n. Etym: [l. sequestratio: cf. F. séquestration.]

1. (a) (civil & com. Law) the act of separating, or setting aside, a Thing in controversy from the possession of both the parties that Contend for it, to be delivered to the one adjudged entitled to it. It may be voluntary or involuntary. (b) (chancery) a prerogative process empowering certain commissioners To take and hold a defendant's property and receive the rents and Profits thereof, until he clears himself of a contempt or performs a Decree of the court. (c) (eccl. Law) a kind of execution for a rent, as in the case of a Beneficed clerk, of the profits of a benefice, till he shall have Satisfied some debt established by decree; the gathering up of the Fruits of a benefice during a vacancy, for the use of the next Incumbent; the disposing of the goods, by the ordinary, of one who is Dead, whose estate no man will meddle with. Craig. Tomlins. Wharton. (d) (intrnat. Law) the seizure of the property of an individual for The use of the state; particularly applied to the seizure, by a Belligerent power, of debts due from its subjects to the enemy. Burrill.

2. The state of being separated or set aside; separation; retirement; Seclusion from society. Since henry monmouth first began to reign,. . . This loathsome Sequestration have i had. Shak.

3. Disunion; disjunction. [obs.] Boyle.