Forms: α. 3–6 viscounte (4 vescownte), 5– viscount (6 viscont). β. 5 vycounte, vicounte, vicound, 6 Sc. vecount, 6–8 vicount (7 vicont). [a. AF. ves-, viscounte (-cunte, -conte), OF. visconte, viconte (F. vicomte), i. vis- VICE- + counte COUNT sb.2, after med.L. vicecomes: cf. VICE-COUNT. So It. visconte, Pg. visconde, Sp. vizconde.]
1. Hist. One acting as the deputy or representative of a count or earl in the administration of a district; in English use spec. a sheriff or high sheriff.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 37. The erle Pictaveuse … ravesched his owne viscountes wyf. Ibid., 165. Oon Wydomarus, viscounte of Lemovik … foond greet tresour of gold.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1984. Sir Valyant of Vyleris … made siche avowez, To venquyse by victorie the vescownte of Rome!
1484. Caxton, Chivalry, 23. Kynges oughte to haue under them dukes, Erles, vycountes and other lordes.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1811), 287. Otho … pursued after ye vaungarde of the kyng, of ye which were capitayns ye vicounte of Mylyon, and one named fryer Garny.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 113. The Vicount of Melun, a verye noble man of the realme of Fraunce.
1579. Expos. Termes Law, 181 b. Viscount is a magistrate, and officer, of grat authoryty whom wee commonly call (Sherife).
1630. Wadsworth, Pres. Estate Spain, 32. Vicountes of Spayne, and the value of their Lordships, of which they are Vicounts.
1710. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., II. Viscount,… Vicount, signifies as much as Sheriff.
1861. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., iii. 42. All the freeholders assembled under the viscount or sheriff.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. v. 302. Neal, the valiant Viscount of the district.
Comb. 1611. Cotgr., Vicomptier, of a Vicount, Vicountlike.
b. In the island of Jersey: (see quots.).
1694. Falle, Jersey, ii. 65. Before whom rideth the Viscount, or Sheriff, with his Staff of Office erected, one End thereof on the Pommel of his Saddle.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. xxiii. 525. In Jersey there is an officer called Vicomte, or Viscount, who represents the High Sheriff of an English county.
2. A member of the fourth order of the British peerage, ranking between an earl and a baron. Occas. contracted Visc., Visct.
This use of the title dates from the reign of Henry VI., when John, Baron Beaumont, was created Viscount Beaumont by letters patent of 12th February 1440.
1450. Rolls of Parlt., V. 189/2. Notwithstondyng that Viscountes were not erecte nor create, in the tyme of … oure Fadre.
c. 1475. Contin. Brut., 602. Þe Duke of Northfolke, þe Erle of Warwyk, Lord Facounbryge, & Vicound Bowser.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Rich. III., 25 b. Fraunces lorde Louell was then made Vicount Louell, and the kynge his chamberlain. Ibid., Hen. VIII., 190. The kyng … created the vicount Rochforth Earle of Wilshire, and the vicount Fitzwater was created Earle of Sussex.
1628. Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 3), I. ii. III. xi. A Knight would be a Baronet, and then a Lord, and then a vicount, and then an Earle.
1631. Milton, Ep. M. Win., 3. The honour’d Wife of Winchester, A Viscounts daughter, an Earls heir.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 17 Oct., 1664. I went with my Lord Visct. Cornebury to Cornebury in Oxfordshire.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 385. All degrees of honour are not of equal antiquity. Those now in use are dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVII. 369/2. Peers of the Realm;… the persons who fall under this description are the dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons.
1882. Cussans, Her. (1893), 180. The privilege of wearing Coronets was accorded to Viscounts by James the First.
3. In Continental usage: The son or younger brother of a count.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxviii. The postillion who drove us [to Waterloo] was a Viscount, a son of some bankrupt Imperial General.
