folk-mote

CROSS -- where the citizens 'folk-mote was wont to be held -- against tyranny and corruption in high quarters, suffered the extreme penalty.

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch Arthur Dimock

Downton was evidently of some importance in still earlier days, for on the outskirts of the village, in private grounds, is an earthwork used in Saxon times as a folk-mote, or open-air local parliament.

Wanderings in Wessex An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter Edric Holmes

There must have been a tower here from a very early period if this was the bell that summoned the folk-mote.

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch Arthur Dimock

In these places, too, were held the assize and folk-mote.

Janey Canuck in the West Emily Ferguson 1910

So then was the great folk-mote called, and the same matter was laid before all the people, and none said aught against it, whereas no man was ready to name another to that charge and rule, even had it been his own self.

Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair 1895

It is a dialect in which a market town is called a "cheaping-stead," a popular assembly a "folk-mote," foresters are "wood-abiders," sailors are

A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century 1886

Legislation and judicial procedure were developed and quarrels settled by arbitration, ordeal, and wager, and punishment by bumping often followed the decision of the boy folk-mote.

Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene G. Stanley Hall 1885

When Paul's Cross was erected is not known: it probably stood on the site of some scaffold or steps, from which the people were anciently harangued, for this was the place of the folk-mote, or meeting of the people.

The History of London Walter Besant 1868

And they go adown to the folk-mote that shall bide there over long.

The House of the Wolfings William Morris 1865

There were booths of boughs and rushes set up for shelter of the feebler women and the old men and children along the edges of the fence, for the Hall-Sun had bidden them keep the space clear round about the Doom-ring and the Hill-of-Speech as if for a mighty folk-mote, so that the warriors might have room to muster there and order their array.

The House of the Wolfings William Morris 1865