Forms: 4–6 turbarye, (5 turbere), 5–7 turbarie, (6 to(u)rberie), 8 turbery, 6– turbary. [a. AF. turberie (Britton), a. OF. turb-, torb-, tourberie (12–13th c. in Godef.), med.L. turbāria, f. OF. tourbe (Swiss turbe), med.L. turba, ad. LG. turf or turv: see TURF.]
1. Land, or a piece of land, where turf or peat may be dug for fuel; a peat-bog or peat-moss.
[1292. Britton, II. xxix. § 3. Mes si turberie, ou bruere, ou herbage, ou pesson,… soit tenu en commun par entre parceners ou veisins, et acun face exces [etc.].
1314–5. Rolls of Parlt., I. 313/2. A fower tourbes en la tourberie denz lour Commune pasture.]
1363. Cockersand Chartul. (Chetham Soc.), I. 64. They may … delfe theyr turves in ye mosse and turbarye in Gayrstang.
1455. Rolls of Parlt., V. 311/2. cc acres of Turbarie in the marshe of Holand.
1571. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), II. 244. My mosse and turbarie commonly called Toft Mosse.
1583. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (ibid.), 15. For turbery and paustere. Ibid. For his tourberie and pausture. Ibid. For his torberie and pastre.
1607. Norden, Surv. Dial., II. 66. Woodsales, sales of heath, flags, and Turbarie.
1765. Act 5 Geo. III., c. 26, Preamble. Moors, marshes, turbarys, waters,… commons, and other commodities.
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 215. In a turbary on the estate of the Earl of Moira, in Ireland, a human body was dug up,… covered with eleven feet of moss.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, i. (1869), 19. This sword was discovered in a turbary … in a large boat, which had evidently been sunk.
† b. transf. The substance obtained from or forming a turbary; peat. Obs.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 38. In tythyng of wyn,… of flex, of hemp, of turbarye & fewall, or frute of treen.
1798. Trans. Soc. Arts, XVI. 241. The soil consists chiefly of about twelve inches of turbary, and under that, gravel or stone.
2. Law. In full common of turbary: The right to cut turf or peat for fuel on a common or on another person’s land.
1567. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), II. 84. Concerning turbarye and sute of Court.
1622. Callis, Stat. Sewers (1647), 106. Common of Pischary, Turbary, or of Pasture in great Fens, Marishes and Wastes, may be charged … for their Commons.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 209. Turbary is an interest of digging turfes upon a common.
1798. J. Middleton, View Agric. Middlesex, 103. The value of the commons … including … pasturage, locality of situation, and the barbarous custom of turbary.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 294. The parishioners have a right of turbary on these moors, by which they have been much injured.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 19 Sept., 6/4. Each infinitesimal right of grazing or turbary had to be surveyed, examined into.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1850. Mantell, in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., VI. 327. The so-called ‘turbary deposit,’ whence bones of the Moa … have been obtained.
1896. N. Brit. Daily Mail, 8 June, 4. The clauses relating to purchase, turbary rights, and other matters.
1896. Speaker, 18 July, 58/2. The turbary and sea-wrack clause will have the most important effects.
