ABSTRACT
The early modern English concept of ‘native’, derived from post-classical Latin nativus, arose in part from long standing legal perceptions surrounding a person's status from birth, either as an individual born into bondage, servants, or one inheriting a status. In Scotland, the word dates back as early as 1381, but first appeared in English language in the fifteenth century to denote the particular status of local people as being either ‘bondmen or natifis’. 1 ‘Native’ not only related to local and national geography, but to the status of an individual's parents. That status was an inheritable right. It entitled an individual, through feudal ideas of fealty and allegiance to the Crown, to certain rights and privileges that were withheld from others. 2 Calais was lost in 1558 and Wales had been under English control since Edward I. Following the accession of James VI to the throne of England in 1603, Scotland and England became the focal point of debates on legal natives.
