burgage
Americannoun
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(in England) a tenure whereby burgesses or townspeople held lands or tenements of the king or other lord, usually for a fixed money rent.
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(in Scotland) tenure directly from the crown of property in royal burghs in return for the service of watching and warding.
noun
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(in England) tenure of land or tenement in a town or city, which originally involved a fixed money rent
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(in Scotland) the tenure of land direct from the crown in Scottish royal burghs in return for watching and warding
Other Word Forms
- nonburgage noun
Etymology
Origin of burgage
1250–1300; Middle English borgage < Anglo-French borgage, burgage or Anglo-Latin burgāgium; burgh, -age
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There are traces of burgage tenure at Horsham in 1210, and it was called a borough in 1236.
From Project Gutenberg
It was called a borough in 1461, when there are also traces of burgage tenure.
From Project Gutenberg
The old ordinances of Richard Lucy for the government of the borough declared that “those who hold burgage tenure in Egremont shall find armed men for the defence of the fortress forty days at their own charge; shall find twelve men for the lord’s military array, and be bound to aids for his redemption from captivity, and hold watch and ward; and that they shall not enter the forest with bow and arrow, nor cut off their dogs’ feet within the borough.”
From Project Gutenberg
Further, the cellarer was accustomed to warrant to the servants of the court lodge, that they should be quit of scot and tallage; but now it is not so, for the burgesses say that the servants of the court lodge ought to be quit only so far as they are servants, but not when they hold burgage in the town, and when they or their wives publicly buy and sell in the market.
From Project Gutenberg
Burgage, bur′gāj, n. a tenure in socage for a yearly rent: a tenure in Scotland in royal burghs under nominal service of watching.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
