Law. Only OE. and Hist. Also frithborg, -burg, frichborgh, fridburgh, friborg(h, -burg(h, -bourg, freoborg, freeborgh. [OE. *friðborh lit. ‘peace-pledge’: see FRITH sb.1 and BORROW sb.; the word, though found in no document earlier than the spurious ‘Laws of Edward the Confessor’ (app. the source of all the later statements on the subject), is certainly genuine. A mistranslation of the corrupt form friborg, freoborg gave rise to the later name FRANKPLEDGE.] The Old English name for FRANKPLEDGE.
a. 1200. Laws of Edw. Conf., c. 20, Preamble (Schmid). Alia pax maxima est, per quam omnes firmiori statu sustentantur; scilicet fidejussionis stabilitate, quam Angli vocant friðborgas, præter Eboracenses, qui vocant eam tenmanne tale. Ibid., c. 20. § 3 and caps. 21, 29 [other texts read fri-, freo-].
c. 1290. Fleta, I. xlvii. § 10 (1647), 62. Frichborgh.
1607. [see DECENER 2].
a. 1641. Spelman, Anc. Govt. Eng., Reliq. (1723), 51. Every Hundred was divided into many Freeborgs or Tithings … which stood all bound one for the other.
1747. Carte, Hist. Eng., I. 319–1. The ordinary courts of the hundred were held once a month for determining appeals from the decisions of particular friborghs, and other matters subject to their cognizance.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1761), I. ii. 49. A tithing, decennary, or fribourg.
1874. Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England (1875), I. v. 86–7. The name of tithing has been very commonly applied both by historical writers and in legal custom to denote a different idea, the association of ten men in common responsibility legally embodied in the frithborh or frankpledge.
