Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
marchet .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete In
Middle Ages England , a fine paid to alord on a daughter's marriage, in recompense for the loss of a worker.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He was subject to special payments, such as "merchet," a payment made to the lord of the manor when a woman of villain rank was married, and
An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England Edward Potts Cheyney 1904
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Another very important distinction between the free tenants and the villeins was the payment of _merchet_ on the marriage of daughters, which signified that the offspring of such marriages would be the lawful property of the lord.
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'And merchet of women?' queried his cousin mischievously.
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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Previous payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowledgments of serfdom, the obtaining of their land on burdensome conditions, were all recorded on the rolls and could be produced to prove the custom of the manor to the disadvantage of the tenant.
An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England Edward Potts Cheyney 1904
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He laboured under many disabilities, such as the merchet or fine for marrying his daughter, and fines for selling horse or ox.
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'"merchet of women" also, but as an antiquary I must tell ye that it's not what you two young men would wish it to be ----'
Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease
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