frankalmoign

/ ˈfræŋkəlˌmɔɪn /

noun

1. English legal history a form of tenure by which religious bodies held lands, esp on condition of praying for the soul of the donor

Word History and Origins

Origin of frankalmoign¹

C16: from Anglo-French fraunke almoigne , from fraunke frank + almoign church treasury, alms chest

Example Sentences

Everybody knows that it appears in Domesday as a local peculiarity of Danish districts; in modern law it came to be a general name for any freehold that was neither knight service, frankalmoign, nor grand sergeanty.

From Project Gutenberg

Another kind of ancient tenure, still subsisting, is the tenure of frankalmoign, or free alms, and this is the tenure by which the lands of the church are for the most part held.

From Project Gutenberg

This too, no doubt, is the reason that tenants in frankalmoign were discharged from all other services except the repairing of highways, building castles, and repelling invasions; just in fact as the Druids, among the Ancient Britons, had similar privileges.

From Project Gutenberg

The prior of St. James at Northampton, having been summoned in the twelfth of Edward II., was discharged upon his petition, because he held nothing of the king by barony, but only in frankalmoign.

From Project Gutenberg

The suggestion is offered by Mr. Rollason that the tenure of the lands was not precisely a lay one, but partook of a spiritual nature—was, in fact, not feudal, but what was known as a tenure in frankalmoign or free alms.

From Project Gutenberg