haligemot

haligemot or halimote

/haela(ga)mowt/ In Saxon law, the meeting of a hall (conventus aulx), that is, a lord's court; a court of a manor, or court-baron. So called from the hall, where the tenants or freemen met, and justice was administered.

It was sometimes used to designate a convention of citizens in their public hall and was also called folkmote and halimote. The word halimote rather signifies the lord's court or a court baron held in a manor in which the differences between the tenants were determined. Furthermore, it seems to have been a common practice for a wealthy abbey to keep a court, known as a halimote, on each of its manors, while in addition to these manorial courts it kept a central court, a libera curia for all its greater freehold tenants