Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 4–8 fornage, (6 firnage), 5– furnage. [a. OF. fornage (F. fournage), f. OF. forn (F. four):—L. furn-us oven.] a. The process of baking; the price paid for baking. b. Feudal Law. (See quot. 1753; the interpretation is justified by the med.Lat. quots. in Du Cange s.v. Furnagium.)

1

1468.  in Stow’s Surv. Lond. (ed. Strype, 1754), II. 443/1. The Baker shall be allowed … two Lofis for Fornage.

2

a. 1470.  Tiptoft, Cæsar, v. (1530), 7. They shulde have no corne to furnage.

3

1572.  in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz., II. 48. Wood for firnage of breed by the yere.

4

1601.  F. Tate, Househ. Ord. Edw. II., § 43 (1876), 26. This serjant shal take for fornage of pain de main for the kinges mouth.

5

1676–1732.  in Coles.

6

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Fornage, the fee taken by a lord from his tenants, bound to bake in the lord’s oven, or for a permission to use their own.

7

1875.  Parish, Sussex Gloss., Furnage. A sum formerly paid by the tenants of the lord of the manor for right to bake in his oven.

8

1882.  A. W. Alexander, Preston Guilds, 6. A burgess may make an oven upon his grounds, and bake for his furnage for one horse load of flour or meal, one halfpenny.

9

  attrib.  1851.  Turner, Dom. Archit., II. iii. 112. A seignorial oven in which all the tenants were obliged to bake their bread and pay furnage dues.

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