Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 48 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.)
1468. in Stows Surv. Lond. (ed. Strype, 1754), II. 443/1. The Baker shall be allowed two Lofis for Fornage.
a. 1470. Tiptoft, Cæsar, v. (1530), 7. They shulde have no corne to furnage.
1572. in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz., II. 48. Wood for firnage of breed by the yere.
1601. F. Tate, Househ. Ord. Edw. II., § 43 (1876), 26. This serjant shal take for fornage of pain de main for the kinges mouth.
16761732. in Coles.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Fornage, the fee taken by a lord from his tenants, bound to bake in the lords oven, or for a permission to use their own.
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.
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.
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.