butlerage

[buht-ler-ij]

noun

Old English Law.

1. the privilege allowed the king's butler to take a certain quantity of every cask of wine imported by an alien.

Word History and Origins

Origin of butlerage¹

First recorded in 1485–95; butler + -age

Example Sentences

There is also another antient hereditary duty belonging to the crown, called the prisage or butlerage of wines.

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Butlerage ceased to be levied in 1809, by the Customs Consolidation Act of that year.

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In like manner the Duke of Grafton was indemnified in 1806 for loss incurred through the resumption of the "prisage and butlerage" of wines; nor was Lord Gwydir permitted to suffer by the compulsory surrender of his lease in the mooring-chains.

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