Forms: 3–7 baronie, 4 barnye, 4–5 baronye, 5– barony. [a. OF. baronie:—late L. *baronīa: see BARON and -Y. Cf. BARNÉ.]
1. The domain of a baron: a. strictly.
1297. R. Glouc., 479. He ȝef him & is eirs the noble baronie.
1340. Ayenb., 38. Þet … nimeþ þe cites, þe casteles, þe londes, þe baronyes.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur (1816), II. 413. King Arthur gave unto every each of them a barony of lands.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 274. Lands and Mannors … of sufficient reuenue and qualitie to make what was accounted a Baronie, which was xiii. Knights Fees, and a Third part.
1649. Milton, Eikon., iv. Wks. (1851), 364. The People, that drove the Bishops out of their Baronies.
1860. Forster, Grand Remonstr., 29. A baron claimed his barony not as a lord … but as a proprietor.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxiv. 417. To say that the Bishops sit in Parliament simply because they hold baronies runs counter to all the facts of our history.
b. In Ireland: A division of a county; see quot.
1596. Spenser, State Irel. (T.). That, in everye countrey or barronye, they should keepe an other able school-master, which should instructe them in grammer, [etc.].
1607. Davies, 1st Let. Earl Salisb. (1787), 229. The county of Monaghan was divided into five baronies.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), 326. In Ireland … an head constable for each barony or hundred, being 252.
1752. Carte, Hist. Eng., III. 577. Baronies, into which the Irish counties are divided as the English are into hundreds.
1873. Gen. Rep. Census Eng., IV. 181. The Baronies appear to have been formed successively on the submission of the Irish chiefs … the territory of each constituting a barony.
c. In Scotland: A large freehold estate or manor, even though the proprietor is a simple commoner.
1843. Oliver & Boyd’s Almanac, 473. Incorporated Trades of the Barony of Calton [Edinburgh].
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., v. 97. The proprietor of the Barony, who lived at a distance, and had no dwelling upon the land.
Mod. The best farm in the whole barony.
† 2. The body of barons collectively, the baronage. Obs. (Cf. BARNÉ.)
1297. R. Glouc., 535. The Erl of Gloucetre Richard deide tho, Tho was the baronie wel in the more wo.
c. 1300. Beket, 1105. The King and al his Baronie: and his Bischops echon.
c. 1450. Merlin, vi. 106. Alle the baronye come to the mynster.
1596. Drayton, Leg., iii. 445. The bold Barony.
3. The rank or dignity of baron; the office of Baron of the Exchequer; baronship.
1788. H. Walpole, Remin., vii. 52. A barony, a red riband, and a good place for her brother.
1868. Daily News, 6 July, 4/4. An Irish earl or viscount is content with the lowest order in the English peerage—a barony.
1885. Law Times, 14 March, 347/2. The abolition of the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas, and the Chief Barony.
4. The tenure by which a baron held of his superior; military or other ‘honorable’ tenure.
1863. Cox, Inst. Eng. Govt., I. vii. 63. William the Conqueror changed the spiritual tenure of frankalmoign or free alms … into the feudal tenure by barony.
