1. Assault on a householder within the house after breaking in to commit the assault or to commit theft.
2. The crime of housebreaking or burglary accompanied by violence. • This term derives from Anglo-Saxon law (h msocn), and literally meant “breaching the peace of another’s home.” — Also spelled hamesecken; hamesoken.
— Also termed hamfare.
“Burglary, or nocturnal housebreaking, burgi latrocinium, which by our ancient law was called hamesecken, as it is in Scotland to this day, has always been looked upon as a very heinous offence ….” 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 223 (1769).
