1. A place for the preservation of certain wildlife (such as pheasants, partridges, or rabbits).
2. A privilege to keep wildlife or game in a warren.
3. The area to which the privilege extends.
free warren. A warren privilege giving the grantee the sole right to kill the wildlife to the extent of the grantee’s warren area.
— Also termed libera warrena.
“Free warren is a … franchise, erected for preservation or custody … of beasts and fowls of warren; which being ferae naturae, every one had a right to kill as he could; but upon the introduction of the forest laws … these animals being looked upon as royal game and the sole property of our savage monarchs, this franchise of free warren was invented to protect them; by giving the grantee a sole and exclusive power of killing such game … on condition of his preventing other persons. A man therefore that has the franchise of warren is in reality no more than a royal gamekeeper; but no man, not even a lord of a manor, could by common law justify sporting on another’s soil, or even on his own, unless he had the liberty of free warren.” 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 38–39 (1766).
