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)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heriot

And if any one depart this life intestate, be it through his neglect, be it through sudden death; then let not the lord draw more from his property than his lawful heriot.

From Popular Law-making by Frederic Jesup Stimson

One of his tenants died and his bailiffs seized the best thing he had, to wit, an ox, as heriot due to the lord.

From Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England by Charles L. (Charles Latimer) Marson

A common custom for a villein was that his best beast go to his lord as heriot and his second best beast go to the parish priest as mortuary.

From Our Legal Heritage June 2011 (Sixth) Edition by S. A. Reilly

Of their articles he approved of two only, that demanding the right to choose their pastors and that denouncing the heriot or death-duty.

From The Age of the Reformation by Preserved Smith

The heriot of a virgate was generally an ox, or money payment of its value.

From The Enclosures in England An Economic Reconstruction by Harriett Bradley

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