1. A chancery writ to the Exchequer ordering the payment of an annual pension or other sum.
2. A writ to the sheriff authorizing delivery of any property given as bond and then taken when a defendant forfeited a recognizance.
3. A writ to a jailer ordering delivery of a prisoner who had paid bail.
4. A writ to a sheriff commanding him to deliver to the plaintiff lands or goods pledged as part of a commercial trade loan arrangement (a statute staple) available in certain merchant towns in England. • If a debtor defaulted on this obligation, the creditor could obtain a writ of extent, which directed the sheriff to take an inventory and entitled the creditor to keep the debtor’s property for a time until the rentals on the property equaled the amount due. The writ of liberate was issued after the inventory had been performed under the writ of extent. See EXTENT; STAPLE , (2).
liberate, vb. To set (a person) free, as from slavery, bondage, or hostile control.
