Im`me*mo"ri*al (?), a.
[Pref. im- not + memorial: cf. F.
immémorial.]
Extending beyond
the reach of memory, record, or tradition; indefinitely ancient;
as, existing from time immemorial. "Immemorial elms." Tennyson. "Immemorial usage or custom." Sir M. Hale.
Time immemorial (Eng. Law.), a time antedating (legal) history, and beyond "legal memory" so called; formerly an indefinite time, but in 1276 this time was
fixed by statute as the begining of the reign of
Richard I. (1189). Proof of unbroken possession or use of any right since that date made it unnecessary to establish the original grant. In 1832 the plan of dating legal memory from a fixed
time was abandoned and the principle substituted that rights which had been enjoyed for full twenty years (or as against
the crown thirty years) should not be liable
to impeachment merely by proving that they had
not been enjoyed before.
Hear it pronounced