Obs. [f. CURATE + -SHIP.]
1. The office or position of a curate; a curacy.
1598. Florio, Pieua, a vicarage, a curatship or parsonage.
1603. Const. & Canons Eccles., No. 33. Except … he be … admitted either to some Benefice or Curateship.
1684. trans. Agrippa’s Van. Artes, lxiv. 209. He hath … two Benefices, one Curateship of twenty Crowns, another Priory of forty.
1861. Perry, Hist. Ch. Eng., I. xv. 576. In Lincolnshire, the Archbishop reports there are many miserably poor vicarages and curateships.
2. The personality of a curate. nonce-use.
17[?]. Swift, Poems, Parson’s Case. Should fortune shift the scene, And make thy curateship a dean.
3. Curatorship.
1855. Lorenz, trans. Van der Keessel’s Sel. Theses, ccccxxi. Wards and others who are under guardianship or curateship.
