Pl. lords-lieutenant(s, lord-lieutenants.
1. The title of various high officials holding deputed authority from the sovereign.
† a. In Scotland. Obs.
1453. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 403. He wald noght find caucion and sourete that the lord Lievtenand suld haue ferme and stable quhat the said Ranald did.
1547. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 81. As salbe thocht expedient be my Lord Lieutennent.
b. In Ireland: The Viceroy.
In 1640 the earl of Strafford who had till then borne the title of ‘Lord Deputy,’ was promoted to the higher dignity of ‘Lord Lieutenant.’
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 57. Some succeeding Princes … had their … Lord Lieutenants or Deputies (as at this day they are called) of Ireland,… then whom, no Lieutenants in Christendome … comes neerer Kinglike State.
1648. Art. Peace, in Milton’s Wks. (1847), 257/1. To such other place as his majesty’s lord lieutenant … shall appoint.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3841/3. Lawrence Earl of Rochester, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
a. 1865. Greville, Mem., II. (1885), II. 34. No appointment is known but that of Lord de Grey as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
c. In a county: The chief executive authority and head of the magistracy, usually a peer or other large land-owner, appointed by the Sovereign by patent. Under him and of his appointing are deputy-lieutenants. He also recommends qualified persons for the office of justice of the peace.
Lord-lieutenants, when first introduced in the 16th c., were to take an active part in the defence of the realm, and down to 1871 they had extensive powers with regard to the militia, etc., which then reverted to the Crown.
1557–8. Act 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary, c. 3 § 5. The Lorde Leiutenante or the Lorde Wardeine … duryng the tyme of any his or their Commission shall and maye heare order and determine the same Offences by his or their discretyons.
1642. Declar. Lords & Comm., For Rais. Forces, 22 Dec., 7. That the Lord Lieutenants … do … appoint one experienced Souldier in every Regiment to be an Adjutor, to be resident in the sayd Counties to exercise the severall Companies of the sayd Regiments.
1710. Chamberlayne, Pres. St. Gt. Brit., I. II. (ed. 23), 143. For furnishing Ammunition, and other Necessaries, the Lord Lieutenant … may levy every Year one fourth part … of each Man’s Proportion in the Tax of 70,000l. a Month.
1839. Penny Cycl., XV. 216/1. From the reign of Philip and Mary the lords-lieutenants have had the charge, under the sovereign, of raising the militia in their respective counties.
a. 1865. Greville, Mem., II. (1885), III. 65. At Court yesterday to make Lord Grey Lord-Lieutenant of Northumberland.
† 2. Applied to the second-in-command of an army, when a peer. Obs.
1544. Late Exped. Scot., 4, in Dalyell, Fragm. Sc. Hist. (1798). Wherof my Lorde Admyral ledde the vantgard,… and Therle of Hertford, beinge Lorde Lieutenaunt, the battayll. Ibid., 6. The Lord Lieutenaunt sent with diligence to the vanwarde, that they shulde merche towardes the towne.
Hence Lord-lieutenancy, the office of a lord-lieutenant.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., IV. xxx. 58. He had just obtained the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland for his brother.
1884. S. Dowell, Tax. & Taxes Eng., II. 103. Carteret, turned out of the lord-lieutenancy about the same time, was now in open opposition.
