waif and stray

{{Short description|Legal privilege under Anglo-Norman law}}

{{about||the short story collection|Waifs and Strays||Waifs and Strays (disambiguation)}}

Waif and stray was a legal privilege commonly granted by the Crown to landowners under Anglo-Norman law. It usually appeared as part of a standard formula in charters granting privileges to estate-holders, along the lines of "with sac and soc, toll and team, infangthief and outfangthief" and so on.{{cite book|title=The Companion to British History|last=Arnold-Baker|first=Charles|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|page=1222|isbn=9780415185837}}

A waif was an item of ownerless and unclaimed property found on a landowner's territory, while a stray referred to a domestic animal that had wandered onto the same land. Both terms originated from Anglo-Norman French. A grant of waif and stray permitted the landowner to take ownership of such goods or animals if they remained unclaimed after a set period of time. In late medieval England, the management of waifs and strays required the coordination and cooperation of lords and the local communities they presided over.{{Cite journal |last=Claridge |first=Jordan |last2=Gibbs |first2=Spike |date=January 2022 |title=Waifs and Strays: Property Rights in Late Medieval England |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/waifs-and-strays-property-rights-in-late-medieval-england/148ADDD32647806A4793D0AB2933F888 |journal=Journal of British Studies |language=en |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=50–82 |doi=10.1017/jbr.2021.125 |issn=0021-9371}}

In later centuries, the expression "waifs and strays" came to be used as metaphors for – and ultimately became synonymous with – abandoned or neglected children.{{cite book|title=Romanticism and the Vocation of Childhood|last=Plotz|first=Judith Ann|page=37|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2001|isbn=9780312227357}}