578 FOR 
manners. L’Efrdhge .—Solemn order, method, mode, ha¬ 
bit, or drefs.—The pretender would have infallibly landed 
in our northern parts, and found them all fat down in their 
formalities, as the Gauls did the Roman fenators. Swift. 
If men forfwear the deeds and bonds they draw, 
Though fign’d with all formality of law ; 
And though the figning and the feal proclaim 
The burefac’d perjury, and fix the fname. Dryden. 
External appearance.—-To fix on God the formality of 
faculties, or affections, is the impofiure of our fancies, 
and contradictory to his divinity. Glanville. —Eifence ; the 
quality by which any thing is what it is.—May not a man 
vow to A-. and B. that he will give a hundred pounds to 
an hofpital ? Here the vow is made both to God and to 
A. and B. But here A. and B. are only witnefTes to the 
vow ; but the formality of the vow lies in the promife 
made to God. Stillingfleet . 
Formalities, are robes worn by the magifirates of a 
city or corporation, &c. on folemn occafions. 
To FOR'MALIZE, v. a. \_formalifer, Fr.] To model; 
to modify. Not now in life. —The fame fpirit which 
anointed the bleffed foul of our Saviour Chrift, doth fo 
formalize , unite, and actuate, his whole race, as if both he 
and they were fo many limbs compafted into one body. 
Hooker. —To affeCt formality; to be fond of ceremony. 
FOR'MALLY, adv. According to eftablilhed rules, 
methods, ceremonies or rites.— Formally according to our 
law, depofe him. Shakefpeare. —Ceremonioufly ; ftiffly; 
precifely.—To be fiitr and formally referved, as if the 
company did not deferve our familiarity, is a downright 
challenge of homage. Collier. —In open appearance ; in a 
vifible and apparent date.—You and your followers do 
hand formally divided againd the authorifed guides of the 
church, and the reft of the people. Hooker. —Elfentially ; 
charaCteriftically.—The Heathens and the Chriftians may 
agree in material aCts of charity ; but that which formally 
makes this a Chriftian grace, is the fpring from which it 
flows. Smalridge. —In proper form.—The very devil af- 
fumed thee formally. Middleton. 
A fubtile net, which only for that fame 
The fkilful palmer formally did frame. Spenfer. 
FOR'MALNESS, f. The ftate or quality of being 
formal. 
FORM'AMEN.T, f A mould, a form, a fhape. Scott. 
Not muck ufed. 
FOR'MAN (Andrew), archbifiiop of St. Andrew’s, 
eat! of Pittenweem, and of (Nottingham in England, one 
of the lords of the regency appointed by the dates during 
the minority of James V. of Scotland, legate a-latere, pri¬ 
mate of all the kingdom of Scotland, and archbifhop of 
Bourges in France, defcended from the family of the For¬ 
mans of Hutton in the fT.ire of Berwick, and faid to have 
been one of the bed’ datefmen of the age in which he 
lived. He died in 1521, and was buried at Dunfermline. 
Dempder records that he wrote a book againd Luther, 
a Treadle concerning the Stoic Philofophy, and a Col¬ 
lection out of the Decretals. 
F.ORMA'TION,/. [' formation, Fr. formo, Lat.] The 
adt of forming or generating.—The folids are originally 
formed of a fluid, from a fmall point, as appears by the 
gradual formation of a foetus. A rlnith not.—-The manner in 
which a thing is formed.—The chorion, a thick mem¬ 
brane oblcuring the formation, the dam doth tear afunder. 
Brown. 
FORM'ATIVE, adj. \formo, Lat.] Having the power 
of giving form; pladic.—As we have eftablifhed our 
affiertion of the feminal production of all kinds of animals; 
fo likewife we affirm, that the meaned plant cannot be 
raifed without feed, by any formative power redding in the 
foil. Bentley. , 
FORMA'TOR, f. One that forms, a former. Not 
fed. 
FORMA'TRICE, or 1'ormatr.ix,/. A female that 
FOR 
forms; that power, with the ancients, by which all bodies 
receive their proper forms. Not much ufed. 
FOR'MEDON, f. in law, a writ that lies for him who 
hath right to lands or tenements by virtue of any intail. 
Upon alienation by a tenant in tail, whereby the edate tail 
is difeontinued, and the remainder or reverfion is, by 
failure of the particular edate, difplaced and turned to a 
mere right, the remedy is by this aftion of formedon (fe. 
cundum formam doni) which is in the nature of a writ of 
right, and is the highed adlion that tenant in tail can have. 
Co. Lit. 316. For tenant in tail cannot have an abfolute 
writ of right, which is confined to fttch only as claim in 
fee fimple : and for that reafon this writ of formedon was 
granted him by the ftatute de donis, {Wefm.z. 13 Ed. I. 
c. 1 ;) wdiich is therefore emphatically called his writ of 
right. F. N. B. 255. 
This writ is didinguidied into three fpecies; a formedon 
in the defeender, in the remainder, and in the reverter. 
A writ of formedon in the defeender lieth where a gift in 
tail is made, and the tenant in tail aliens the lands intaiied, 
or is diffieifed of them and dies; in this cafe the heir in 
tail fliall have this writ of formedon in the defeender, to 
recover tliefe lands fo given in tail, againd him who is 
then the aCtual tenant of the freehold. In which cafe the 
demandant is bound to date the manner and form of the 
gift in tail, and to prove himfelf heir f cundum formam 
doni. F. N. B . 211. 
A formedon in the remainder lieth where a man gives 
lands to another for life or in tail, with remainder to a 
third perfon in tail or in fee ; and he who hath the parti¬ 
cular edate dies without iffiue inheritable, and a ftranger 
intrudes upon him in remainder, and keeps him out of 
pofTeflion. In this cafe the remainder-man fliall have 
this writ of formedon in the remainder, wherein the whole 
form of the gift is dated, and the happening of the event 
upon which the remainder depended. This writ is not 
given in exprefs words by the fatute de donis: but is 
founded upon the equity of the datute, and upon this 
maxim in law, that if any one hath a right to land, lie 
ought alfo to have an action to^recover it. F. N. B. 217. 
A formedon in the reverter lieth where there is a gift in 
tail, and afterwards by the death of the donee or his heirs 
without iffue of his body, the reverfion falls in upon the 
donor, his heirs or afligns ; in fuch cafe the reverfioner 
(hall have this writ to recover the lands, wherein he fliall 
fugged the gift, his owij title to the reverfion minutely 
derived from the donor, and the failure of iffiue upon 
which his reverfion takes place. F. N. B. 219. This lay 
at common law, before the fatute de donis, if the donee 
aliened before he had performed the condition of the gift 
by having iffue, and afterwards died without any. Finch. 
L. 26S. The time of limitation in a formedon, by 21 Jac. 
I. c. 16, is twenty years, within which fpace of time after 
his title accrues, the demandant mud bring his adlion, or 
elfe is for ever barred. 3 Comm. 191. 
There is a writ of formedon in defeender, where parti¬ 
tion of lands, held in tail, is made among parceners, &c. 
and one alienetli her part ; in this cafe her heir (hall have 
this writ ; and by the death of one fifter without iffiue; 
the partition is made void, and the o«her dial! have the 
whole land as heir in tail. Alfo. there is a writ of forme¬ 
don infmul tenv.it, that lies for a coparcener againd a dran- 
ger upon the poileflion of the ancedor.; which may be 
brought without naming the other coparcener who hath 
her part in poffeffiun. This writ may be likewife had by 
one heir in Gavelkind, &c. of lands intailed ; and where 
the lands are held without partition. New Nat. Brev. 476. 
The writ of formedon is now rarely brought; the trying 
titles by ejectment fupplying its place, in an eafier manner. 
FORMEL'LA, a weight of about 70II1S. mentioned in 
the datute of weights and meufures, 51 Hen. ill. 
FORMEL'LO, a town of Italy, in the date of the 
Church, and province of the patrimony of St. Peter: 
ten miles north-wed of Rome. 
FORMENTA'RA, a fmall ifland in the Mediterranean C 
deferted 
