Forms: 4 legasy, 4–7 -cie, 6 -cye, -sey, (pl. legaces), 7 leagacie, 5– legacy. [a. OF. legacie a legateship (see 1 b), = Sp. legacía, ad. med.L. lēgātia (see -ACY) the district of a legate, f. lēgātus LEGATE sb.]
I. Legateship, legation.
† 1. The function or office of a delegate or deputy. (Cf. EMBASSY 1.) Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. v. 20. Therfore we ben sett in legacie [L. legatione fungimur] … for Crist.
1555. Eden, Decades, 133. As I passed by in my legacie to the Soldane of Alcayr.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., II. 1178/1. Who … conferred … with Tho. Cromwell to associat him in that legacie.
† b. spec. The function or office of a papal legate; a legateship. To send in legacy: to send as legate. Legacy of the cross: see LEGATE sb.1 1.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 260. Þis Baldewyn had þe office of legacie of the cros [L. crucis legatione fungens].
1537. Throgmorton, Lett. to Cromwell, in Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), III. 228. I suppose you have a great desire for a true knowledge of his mind and acts in this legacy.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 448. Innocent Bishop of Rome had sent in legacye Adryan of Castella.
a. 1562. G. Cavendish, Wolsey (1893), 174. A strawe, quoth my lord of Norfolk, for your legacye.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 920/1. Two great crosses of siluer, the one of his archbishoprike, the other of his legacie.
1726. Fiddes, Wolsey, II. 189. There were no fires in Smithfield during his [Wolsey’s] Legacy.
† 2. The message or business committed to a delegate or deputy. Obs.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. 75 b. His legacye there perfourmed, and all his bagges wele stuffed, he returned agayne to London.
1555. Eden, Decades, 75. Quicedus and Colmenaris were brought before the king and declared theyr legacie in his presence.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xlii. 602. God gave to þame giftis mair large Thair legacie for till discharge.
1599. Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Legacia, a legacy, an embassage, a message from a Prince.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, VII. 349. He came, and told his Legacie.
1654. trans. Martini’s Conq. China, 113. This Legacy comming to nothing,… both parties prepare to take the Field.
† 3. A body of persons sent on a mission, or as a deputation, to a sovereign, etc.; also, the act of sending such a body. (Cf. EMBASSY 3.) Obs.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, vii. (Jacobus Minor), 555. In þis sammyne tyme com legasy to vaspaciane reuerently.
1582. N. T. (Rheims), Luke xiv. 32. Otherwise whiles he is yet farre of, sending a legacie, he asketh those things that belong to peace.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 125. Offa by often legacies solicited Charles le Maigne the king of France, to be his friend.
II. † 4. The action or an act of bequeathing = BEQUEST 1. Also legacy parole, nuncupative bequest. Obs.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. cciii. 213. Henry, than duke of Burgoyne … bequethed his dukedome vnto Kyng Robert; but the Burgonyons withistode that legacy.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 86. Sundry parcels gave hee besides by legacie parole.
5. A sum of money, or a specified article, given to another by will; = BEQUEST 2. † Formerly also in generalized sense, what one bequeaths.
c. 1460. Henryson, Test. Creseid., 597. Quhen he had hard hir greit infirmite Hir legacy and lamentation.
1514. Pace, Lett. to Wolsey, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. I. 176. To thintent they be not deprividde off suche legaces as my late lorde didde bequest unto them.
1577. H. I., trans. Bullinger’s Decades, II. v. 162. Thou art left wealthie enough by thy fathers legacie, if yt thou art godly, painful, heedful and honest.
1590. Swinburne, Treat. Testaments, 14. A Legacie … is a gifte lefte by the deceased, to bee paide or performed by the Executor, or administrator.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., III. ii. 141. Bequeathing it as a rich Legacie Vnto their issue.
a. 1660. C. Maund, in Wood’s Life (O. H. S.), I. 350, note. I have given Mr. Powell 5li. for a legacie.
1770. Junius Lett., xl. 204. You have paid … his legacy, at the hazard of ruining the estate.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 528. It has been stated that a purchaser is bound to see to the payment of legacies.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xx. 155. The residue greatly exceeded in value the aggregate amount of all the legacies.
b. transf. and fig.; esp. = anything handed down by an ancestor or predecessor.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXXIX. x. His sonnes … Shall find like blisse for legacie bequeathed.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, X. 1263. Forbear thy Threats, my Bus’ness is to dye; But first receive this parting Legacy, He said; And straight a whirling Dart he sent.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 166, ¶ 3. Books are the legacies that a great Genius leaves to mankind.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 9. One of the many fatal legacies left to Spain by the French, was [etc.].
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxxxiv. Leaving great legacies of thought, Thy spirit should fail from off the globe.
1863. W. G. Blakie, Better Days Working People, v. (1864), 117. The difficulty has left sundry legacies behind it.
6. attrib. and Comb., as legacy-duty; legacy-hunter, -monger, one who pays court to old and rich persons in hope of obtaining a legacy; so legacy-hunting.
1810. W. Campbell (title), The Value of Annuities … with the amount of the several Rates of *Legacy Duty, payable on the value of Annuities.
1894. Lely, Stat. Pract. Utility, 1263, note. Foreign or colonial personalty is liable to legacy duty if [etc.].
1693. T. Power, in Dryden’s Juvenal (1697), 304. He exercises his Satyrical Vein upon the Hæredipetæ, or *Legacy-Hunters.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. 286. Her decline was rapid, and her latter days much tormented by legacy-hunters.
1794. Charlotte Smith, Wand. Warwick, 105. To stoop to the pitiful expedient of *legacy-hunting.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 287. Which made Coranus, like a common captator or *legacy-monger, court his owne sonne.
