[f. STEWARD sb. + -SHIP.]
1. The office of steward; also fig.
1465. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 178. Item, the bayly off Hadley owyth hym ffor hys ffe off the stewardsheppe off the same town.
1491. Act 7 Hen. VII., c. 20 § 8. Any Stiwardshippes offices fees wages or annuities … to him graunted.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 78. Shew vs the Hand of God, That hath dismiss’d vs from our Stewardship.
1601. [? Marston], Jack Drums Entert., I. A 4 b. No, I do loue my Girles should wish me liue, Which fewe do wish that haue a greedy Syre: But still expect and gape with hungry lip, When heele giue vp his gowrie stewardship.
1709. Bp. Atterbury, Serm. Sons Clergy, Ded. There are, I believe, Two hundred Persons now living, who have gone before You in the Stewardship.
1839. John Bull, 11 Aug., 382/2. A new writ was … issued for Perth, in the room of Mr. Kinnaird, who vacated by accepting a stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., I. iv. (1871), 41. Each one of us has a stewardship somewhere in the great social system.
1886. Manch. Exam., 1 Oct., 5/3. At a meeting of the Jockey Club … H. W. Fitzwilliam was appointed as successor in the stewardship to the Marquis of Londonderry.
1907. Outlook, 19 Jan., 91/1. The origin and development of the Stewardship of England.
2. Conduct of the office of steward; administration, management, control.
1526. Tindale, Luke xvi. 2. Geve a comptes off thy stewardshippe.
1684. Norris, Poems, etc. 46. Among all the Talents which are committed to our Stewardship, Time … is the most precious.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XIX. 52. Those who held in stewardship the food.
1915. Morn. Post, 22 Dec., 4/4. We want further such a stewardship of the economic resources of the country as will enable us to lift and to carry the financial burden.
† 3. Used for STEWARTRY 1. Obs.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 97. Scotland is divided into 31 shires and two stewardships.
