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debenture|dɪˈbɛntjʊə(r)|
Also 5–7 debentur, 6–7 debenter.
[In early use debentur, stated by Blount in 17th c. to be the L. word debentur ‘there are due or owing’, supposed to have been the initial word of formal certificates of indebtedness. This is, from the early use of the term, probable; though no actual examples of documents containing the Latin formula have been found.]
1. A certificate or voucher certifying that a sum of money is owing to the person designated in it; a certificate of indebtedness.
a. A voucher given in the Royal household, the Exchequer or other Government office, certifying to the recipient the sum due to him for goods supplied, services rendered, salary, etc., and serving as his authority in claiming payment. A principal application of the word during the 17th and 18th centuries was to the vouchers given by the Ordnance Office in payment of stores.
c1455in Paston Lett. No. 264 I. 364 Owyng to the seyd Fastolf for costys and chargys that he bare when he was Lieutenant of the towne of Harflew in Normandie [1415], as yt shewith by a debentur made to the seyd Fastolf, with hym remaynyng..Cxxxiijli. vjs. viijd. Ibid. 366 Certeyn debentur conteynyng the seyd sommes. 1469Mann. & Househ. Exp. 537 Item, my master hath delyvered ij. debentures in the name of Norres, one of viij. marces fore fyshe, and nodere of vij. marces. a1483Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. 66 That none other person make suche debentures or bylles but the Clerkes of the self offyce, so that theyre wryting and hand may be certaynly knowne to them that pay in the countyng house. 1526Ibid. 236 The clerke of the office [Accatrie] shall make out debentures to the parties of whom such provision is made..which he shall present into the Compting-house within two dayes after. 1567R. Edwards Damon & P. in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 78 Let us rifle him so..And steal away his debenters [for coal delivered to the king's kitchen] too. 1666W. Fielding Petit. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 6 Before he gives debentures unto your petitioner for what creation-mony fell due unto your petitioner's said father. 1682Lond. Gaz. No. 1689/4 Two Debenters were lost..One for Nine Months..for the Sum of 37l. 10s. The other for Six Months..for 25l. 1697Act 8–9 Will. III, c. 27 (For better observation of ancient course of the Exchequer) No Teller..shall Trust or Depart With such Money..without an Order or Debenture for the same. 1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3698/4 Lost..an Irish Transport Debenture, No. 191, made out the 20th of August, 1695, to Richard Haynes, for the Service of the Ann Ketch. 1708J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. ii. xii. (1743) 101 The chief Clerk [of the Kitchen] keeps all the Records, Ledger books, and Debentures for Salaries, and Provisions and Necessaries issuing from the Offices of the Pantry, Buttery, and Cellar. 1730–6Bailey (folio), Debenture [in the Exchequer and King's House], a Writing given to the Servants for the Payment of their Wages, etc. 1837Penny Cycl. VIII. 340/2 Debentures..are in use now in the receipt of Exchequer and Board of Ordnance, and it is believed in the king's household.
†b. spec. A voucher certifying to a soldier or sailor the audited amount of his arrears for pay: see quot. 1674. Obs.
This was a regular feature of 17th c. army organization; such certificates, issued ‘upon the public faith of the kingdom’, were given to the Parliamentary Army during the Civil War, app. from November 1641 onwards, and similar bonds were also given in subsequent reigns; in some cases these certificates were secured upon and redeemed in forfeited land, esp. in Ireland.
1645in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iv. I. 17 That particular Committee which are appointed to..take in your Accompts, and pay you part of your Arrears at present, and for the rest you are to have a Debentur upon the Public Faith of the Kingdom. 1647Thomasson Tracts (Br. Mus) CCCXIV. No. 26. 2 Very sensible..how tedious..it is for soldiers after disbanding to get their particular accompts audited, and debenters for arrears. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 6 The Debentures of Commission Officers, who serv'd eight years till about December 1649, comes to 1,800,000l. 1674Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4), Debentur (the third person plural of debeor to be due or owing) was by a Rump-act of 1649 cap. 43. ordained to be in the nature of a Bond or Bill to charge the Common-wealth to pay the Souldier-creditor or his Assigns, the sum due upon account for his Arrears. 1698Farquhar Love & Bottle i. i. 8 The merciful bullet, more kind than thy ungrateful country, has given thee a Debenture in thy broken leg, from which thou canst draw a more plentiful maintenance than I with all my limbs in perfection. 1756Gentl. Mag. XXVI. 391 In Limerick, a county, of which the greater part was..in the possession of families whose ancestors were adventurers in the reign of Q. Elizabeth, or had got debentures under Oliver Cromwell.
c. At the Custom-house: A certificate given to an exporter of imported goods on which a drawback is allowed, or of home produce on which a bounty was granted, certifying that the holder is entitled to the amount therein stated.
See M. Postlethwaite, Dict. Trade & Commerce 1751–66, s.v., for full account, and ‘forms of several kinds of debentures’.
1662Act 14 Chas. II, c. 11 §14 The Moneys due upon Debentures for such forein Goods exported by Certificate. 1704Dict. Rust., Debenture..as most commonly used among Merchants is the allowance of Custom paid inward, which a Merchant draws back upon exportation of that Commodity, which was formerly imported. 1711Act 9 Anne, c. 23 Any Certificate or Debenture for Drawing back any Customs or Duties. 1763Gentl. Mag. Apr. 185 Without any suspicion of fraud, a debenture was granted, and a clearance made to Rotterdam, where a certificate was obtained for landing so many casks of rice. 1889Whitaker's Almanac s.v. Excise, Stamps, & Taxes, Debenture or Certificate for drawback, or goods exported, etc., not exceeding {pstlg}10..1s.
†d. transf. An acknowledgement of indebtedness by a corporation, private person, etc. Obs. exc. as in 3.
1583in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 98 The said stipend paid at Halton is iiijli xvijs vd Deducted viz. ffirst for a Debenter xijd Postage iiijs xd [etc.]. 1615Sir R. Boyle Diary (1886) I. 85, I cleered all accompts with Iustice Gosnold and took in his debenter. 1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. iv. 94 An Accessary..in all the pilferings, Hedge-robberies, Debenturs at Inns, and Farrier scores.
†e. fig. Acknowledgement of indebtedness; obligation; debt. Obs.
1609Heywood Brit. Troy xvi. ix, His Throne he fils Twenty foure yeares, then pays his last Debenter [rime aduenter] To Nature. 1658Osborn Adv. Son (1673) 38 If you consider beauty alone, quite discharged from such Debentur's, as she owes to the Arts of Tire-women, Taylers, Shoomakers and perhaps Painters. 1694Steele Poet. Misc. (1714) 40 You modern Wits..Have desperate Debentures on your Fame; And little would be left you, I'm afraid, If all your debts to Greece and Rome were paid.
†2. A certificate of a loan made to the government for public purposes, a government bond bearing annual interest. Obs.
The first quot. connects this with sense 1; it refers to government debentures given to the inhabitants of Nevis and St. Christopher's to recoup them for losses sustained from the invasions of the French.
1710Act 9 Anne c. 23 Which Debentures shall be signed by the said Commissioners of Trade and Plantations..and shall bear interest for the Principal Sums to be contained, after the Rate of Six Pounds per Centum per Annum. 1756Nugent Gr. Tour, France IV. 7 Vast sums are levied by raising and lowering the coin at pleasure, by compounding debentures and government-bills, and by other oppressive methods. 1810‘Phocion’ Opinions on Public Funds 8 If legal paper such as state debentures or bills had, in 1790, been of ten or fifty times their then magnitude. Ibid. 9 Give me a state debenture or an exchequer bill. 1811Wetenhall's Course of Exchange 22 Oct., Irish Funds, Government Debentures, 3½ per cent. 1813Act 53 Geo. III, c. 41 An Act for granting Annuities to satisfy certain Exchequer Bills, and for raising a Sum of Money by Debentures for the Service of Great Britain.
3. A bond issued by a corporation or company (under seal), in which acknowledgement is made that the corporation or company is indebted to a particular person or to the holder in a specified sum of money on which interest is to be paid until repayment of the principal.
Not occurring in the Companies Clauses Consolidation Act of 1845, but used shortly after in connexion with the loans raised by Railway Companies and the like, the name being evidently taken from sense 2. The term is in general use, especially for those bonds by which public companies raise money at a fixed rate of interest, with a prior charge on the assets of the company or corporation issuing them.
mortgage debenture: a debenture the principal of which is secured by the pledging of the whole or a part of the property of the issuing company.
1847East Ind. Railway, Deed of Settlement 9 Apr., Debenture, bond, Bill of Exchange, Promissory note, or other Security. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Debenture..The term has now got to be applied to railway companies', municipal, and other bonds or securities for money loaned. 1861Larceny, &c. Act 24–25 Vict. c. 96 §1 The term..valuable Security shall include..any Debenture, Deed, Bond, Bill, &c. 1863Fawcett Pol. Econ. iii. xv. 1865Mortgage Debenture Act 28–29 Vict. c. 78 An Act to enable certain Companies to issue Mortgage Debentures founded on Securities upon or affecting Land. Ibid. §26 Every Mortgage Debenture..issued by the Company shall be a Deed under the Common Seal of the Company duly stamped. 1887Chitty in Law Rep. 36 Chanc. Div. 215 The term debenture has not, so far as I am aware, ever received any precise legal definition. Ibid. 215 In my opinion a debenture means a document which either creates a debt or acknowledges it, and any document which fulfils either of these conditions is a ‘debenture’..It is not either in law or commerce a strictly technical term, or what is called a term ‘of art’.
4. attrib. and Comb., as † debenture goods, † lands, debenture-holders; debenture-bond, a bond of the nature of a debenture; = debenture 3; debenture-stock, debentures consolidated into, or created in the form of, a stock, the nominal capital of which represents a debt of which only the interest is secured by a perpetual annuity.
1736Bp. Wilson in Keble Life xxvii. (1863) 903 Shipping tobacco and other debenture goods into the running wherries. 1742Francis Horace ii vii. (R.), Yet, prithee, where are Cæsar's bands Allotted their debenture-lands? 1863Act 26–7 Vict. c. 118 §24 The Interest on Debenture Stock shall have Priority of Payment over all Dividends or Interest on any Shares or Stock of the Company, whether Ordinary or Preference or guaranteed, and shall rank next to the Interest payable on the Mortgages or Bonds for the Time being of the Company. 1866Spectator 1 Dec. 1331 That faith stands already pledged to the existing debenture-holders, who lent their money on the security of a legislative Act. 1870Daily News 22 Nov., Vice-Chancellor Malins..in the claim of the holders of debenture bonds issued by the Imperial Land Company of Marseilles..decided that..the bonds in question were virtually promissory notes, and that the holders were consequently entitled to recover in full. 1887Pall Mall G. 8 June 12/1 It is proposed to create {pstlg}285,000 Six per cent. Debenture stock, or rather more than the existing debentures of the company. 1893Midl. Rail. Circular Dec. 30 They all benefited..by consolidation into one uniform 3 per cent. Debenture Stock. |