Obs. exc. Hist. [a. OF. louee, lieuee:—late L. leucāta, f. leuca (F. lieue) LEAGUE sb.1] A liberty extending for about a league outside a town.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent, 329. Round about the Towne of Tunbridge, lyeth a territorie, or compasse of ground, commonly called, the Lowy, but written in the auncient Recordes and Histories Leucata [printed peucata] or Leuga, and being (in deede) a French League of ground.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 18. The Port of Hastings ought to finde three ships. The lowie of Peuensey, one.
1780. Descr. Tunbridge-Wells, 39. Great Bounds … was so called, because it was the extreme boundary of the lowy or liberty of Tunbridge.
1809. Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., 257. In Ripon the Archbishop has the Lowy of St. Wilfrid.
1880. R. C. Jenkins, Canterbury, 170. Gilbert de Clare did homage for the Castle and lowy of Tonbridge.
