heriot

American  

[her-ee-uht] / ˈhɛr i ət /

noun

English Law.

1. a feudal service or tribute, originally of borrowed military equipment and later of a chattel, due to the lord on the death of a tenant.

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heriot British  

/ ˈhɛrɪət /

noun

1. (in medieval England) a death duty paid by villeins and free tenants to their lord, often consisting of the dead man's best beast or chattel

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Etymology

Origin of heriot

before 900; Middle English heriot, heriet, Old English heregeate, heregeatu, heregeatwa war gear, equivalent to here army + geate, etc., equipment; cognate with Old Norse gǫtvar (plural)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heriot

The second burden on the villeins was the tax on change of property by death or transfer; the heriot and fine on alienation.

From Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I. by Freytag, Gustav

Bishop Barrow, who ascended the episcopal throne at Carlisle in 1423, anathematized all men who took the heriot before “the Holy Kirke” got the mortuary.

From Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland by Scott, Daniel

When Dick understood what heriot meant he would not do it.

From Notwithstanding by Cholmondeley, Mary

The value of this heriot fixed by Canute's laws, Sec.

From The History of England, Volume I by Hume, David

When the lord was an ecclesiastical corporation he not unfrequently got two beasts, one as a heriot and the other as a mortuary due to him as rector of the parish.

From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Vinogradoff, Paul