"barony" - Word of the Day from the OED

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barony

SECOND EDITION 1989

(bærn)  Forms: 3-7 baronie, 4 barnye, 4-5 baronye, 5- barony. [a. OF. baronie:late L. *barona: see BARON and -Y. Cf. BARNÉ.] 

    1. The domain of a baron:    a. strictly.

1297 R. GLOUC. 479 He ef him & is eirs the noble baronie. 1340 Ayenb. 38 et..nime e cites, e casteles, e londes, e baronyes. 1470-85 MALORY Arthur (1816) II. 413 King Arthur gave unto every each of them a barony of lands. 1614 SELDEN Titles Hon. 274 Lands and Mannors..of sufficient reuenue and qualitie to make what was accounted a Baronie, which was xiii. Knights Fees, and a Third part. 1649 MILTON Eikon. iv. Wks. (1851) 364 The People, that drove the Bishops out of their Baronies. 1860 FORSTER Grand Remonstr. 29 A baron claimed his barony not as a lord..but as a proprietor. 1876 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 417 To say that the Bishops sit in Parliament simply because they hold baronies runs counter to all the facts of our history.

    b. In Ireland: A division of a county; see quot.

1596 SPENSER State Irel. (T.) That in every county or barony they should keep another able schoolmaster. 1607 DAVIES 1st Let. Earl Salisb. (1787) 229 The county of Monaghan was divided into five baronies. 1672 PETTY Pol. Anat. (1691) 326 In Ireland..an head constable for each barony or hundred, being 252. 1752 CARTE Hist. Eng. III. 577 Baronies, into which the Irish counties are divided as the English are into hundreds. 1873 Gen. Rep. Census Eng. IV. 181 The Baronies appear to have been formed successively on the submission of the Irish chiefs..the territory of each constituting a barony.

    c. In Scotland: A large freehold estate or manor, even though the proprietor is a simple commoner.

1843 Oliver & Boyd's Almanac 473 Incorporated Trades of the Barony of Calton [Edinburgh]. 1854 H. MILLER Sch. & Schm. v. 97 The proprietor of the Barony, who lived at a distance, and had no dwelling upon the land. Mod. The best farm in the whole barony.

    2. The body of barons collectively, the baronage. Obs. (Cf. BARNÉ.)

1297 R. GLOUC. 535 The Erl of Gloucetre Richard deide tho, Tho was the baronie wel in the more wo. c1300 Beket 1105 The King and al his Baronie: and his Bischops echon. c1450 Merlin vi. 106 Alle the baronye come to the mynster. 1596 DRAYTON Leg. iii. 445 The bold Barony.

    3. The rank or dignity of baron; the office of Baron of the Exchequer; baronship.

1788 H. WALPOLE Remin. vii. 52 A barony, a red riband, and a good place for her brother. 1868 Daily News 6 July, The lowest order in the English peeragea barony. 1885 Law Times 14 Mar. 347/2 The abolition of the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas, and the Chief Barony.

    4. The tenure by which a baron held of his superior; military or other ‘honourable’ tenure.

1863 COX Inst. Eng. Govt. I. vii. 63 William the Conqueror changed the spiritual tenure of frankalmoign or free alms..into the feudal tenure by barony.

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