Chiefly Irish. Also 6 chefferie, cheuerie, -ye, 6–7 chiefrie, 7 cheifrie, cheeferie. [f. CHIEF sb. + -ERY, -RY.]
1. The office and territory of an Irish chief.
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 11/1. Rothorike … left the chefferie which he demanded.
1607. Davies, 1st Let. Earl Salisbury (1787), 222. It was doubtful in whom the chiefrie of that country [Cavan] rested.
1741. T. Robinson, Gavelkind, ii. 15, note. Every Seigniory or Chiefry in these Countries.
1885. R. Bagwell, Irel. under Tudors, I. 13. Like a lay chiefry, the abbacy was elective.
† 2. The body of chiefs or leading people. Obs.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 123. The chiefery, or greatest men of Vlster.
3. The institution of chiefs.
1887. Athenæum, 12 March, 345/3. To the clan-system, indeed, to ‘chiefery,’ and to ‘Celtic feudalism,’ the duke [of Argyll] ascribes all the evils of the Highlands.
4. The dues belonging to the chief or tanist of a clan or district; the analogous payment of tribute to the sovereign, or of rent to the lord superior.
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 55/1. The Orians … denieng to paie their accustomable cheuerie, yeelded themselues vnto the earle of Ormond.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (1862), 542/2. Able … to yeeld her Maiesty reasonable chiefrie.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1747), 169. These cheeferies … did consist cheefly in cuttings and cosheries and other Irish exactions.
1731. Swift, Consid. on Two Bills, Wks. (1761), III. 211. Leaving a small chiefry for the minister to pay.
1884. Mary Hickson, Irel. in 17th C., I. Introd. 93. Large tracts of land around the town, for which they paid merely nominal chiefries to the Protestant owners in fee.
