Legal Definitions - owling

Owling is a historical legal term referring to the illegal act of smuggling wool or sheep out of England. This practice was typically undertaken at night to avoid detection by authorities.

Here are some examples to illustrate the concept of owling:

• Imagine a cunning merchant named Thomas in the 17th century, who, frustrated by high export duties on English wool, secretly arranged for several bales of high-quality fleece to be loaded onto a small fishing vessel under the cover of darkness. His intention was to sell the wool in France, where he could fetch a better price without paying English taxes. This clandestine operation, involving the nighttime export of wool from England, would have been considered an act of owling.

• Consider a scenario in the late medieval period where a wealthy Flemish textile manufacturer sought to improve the quality of his own sheep flocks. Knowing that English sheep were renowned for their superior wool, he paid a group of English farmers to secretly transport several prime breeding ewes and rams across the English Channel. Under the cloak of a moonless night, the farmers herded the sheep to a secluded cove and loaded them onto a waiting ship bound for Flanders. This illicit export of live sheep from England, especially under the cover of night, perfectly exemplifies the historical offense of owling.

• During a period when England strictly prohibited the export of raw wool to protect its domestic textile industry, a syndicate of smugglers might have established a sophisticated network. One night, they could have coordinated the movement of carts laden with sacks of wool from inland farms to a remote coastal warehouse. From there, the wool would be quickly transferred to a fast ship waiting offshore, which would then sail to a continental European port before dawn. This organized, nighttime effort to illegally move large quantities of wool out of England to circumvent export bans would be a clear instance of owling.