Also 5 condite, 5–6 conduit, (6 condoke, -duke). [ad. L. conduct-us hired, pa. pple. of condūcĕre to lead together, etc., also to hire: see CONDUCE. In early use a. F. conduit pa. pple.]
† A. pa. pple. and ppl. a. Obs.
1. Hired: see CONDUCT v. 10, CONDUCE 2.
a. as pa. pple.
1476. Proclam., in York Myst., Introd. 37. Þat no plaier … be conducte and reteyned to plaie but twise on þe day.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 154/2. A man beyng conducte & hyred of Justyn.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 53. [He] hath conducte or hyred vs as his workmen for the peny of glory.
b. as adj. in Conduct priest: cf. B. 2.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 52. But for þe synne of symonye may vnnese or neuer be fled in swilk þings, þerfor conduct prestis are reprouid of þe lawe.
1474. Will of Marchall (Somerset Ho.). Euery conducte preeste.
2. pa. pple. Conducted.
c. 1430. [see CONDITE pa. pple.].
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxiv. 508. Blessed be the good lorde that hathe conduytte you hether.
1620. Shelton, Quix., IV. xv. II. 190. Conduct by this lovely Damsel.
B. sb. A hired person, a hireling.
† 1. A hired workman or employé; esp. (as it appears) in a bakehouse. Obs.
a. 1483. Lib. Niger, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 60. Thys clerke takyth none othe at the countyng bourd as an offycer, but as a conduyte.
1525–6. Churchw. Acc., in Brit. Mag., XXXIV. 180. Payd vnto the iij Condokes ffor heruest.
1526. Househ. Ord. (1790), 209. That there should be encreased one conduite in the office of the bakehouse. Ibid. (1610), 330. Bakehouse.—William Tyckenor, conducte; wages 4£ 11s. 3d.
1647. Haward, Crown Rev., 29 (Royal Bakehouse). Foure Conducts: Fee a peice per diem, 4.d.
† 2. A conduct priest; a hired or salaried chaplain; esp. one engaged to read prayers in the chapel of a college, of which he is not on the foundation. Obs.: but see b.
[In Camb. Univ. Calendar the ‘Conduct’ still appears at King’s Coll. in 1852; in the Calendar of 1853 he is the ‘Chaplain’; at Trinity Coll. the name last appears in 1819.]
1499. Will of Povey (Somerset Ho.). Euery prest being a conducte wt in the said churche.
1574. T. Cartwright, Full Declar., 149. One or more chaplaines and conductes are hired to reade the seruice at the houres appointed.
1576. Grindal, Wks. (1843), 181. Item, You shall inquire of the doctrine and judgment of all … vicars, petty canons, deacons, conducts, singing-men, choristers.
1830. Bp. Monk, Life Bentley (1833), I. 218. Dr. Bentley chose a layman as one of the four Sacellani or Conducts, whose duty it is to read prayers daily in the College chapel [Trin. Coll. Camb.].
b. Still used as the name of the chaplains at Eton College.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 583. Who first being brought up in the School of Eaton, was afterward Scholar, and then Conduct in the Kings Colledge at Cambridge.
1737. H. Walpole, in Etoniana, v. 80. Standing over against a Conduct to be catechised.
1865. W. L. C., ibid., i. 21. One of the chaplains or conducts of the college.
