conventionaryadj.n.
/kənˈvɛnʃənəri/ A. adj.
Applied to tenants and tenure on terms originally fixed by convention as distinguished from custom, or presumed to have been so.But the terms had themselves in fact become customary when the word is met with in English, as applied to a peculiar form of tenure existing in Cornwall and parts of Devonshire: see quots.
ΚΠ
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 38v The ordinary couenants of most conuentionary Tenants are, to pay due Capons, [etc.].
1607 J. Norden Surueyors Dialogue 48 They are helde only a kinde of conventionary Tenants, whome the custome of the Mannor doth onely call to do their services at the Court.
1807 Compl. Farmer (ed. 5) I. (at cited word) Conventionary rents, a term applied to the reserved rents of life leases.
1828 Rowe v. Brenton in R. V. Barnewall & C. Cresswell Rep. Cases King's Bench VIII. 738 That the plaintiff's land is a conventionary tenement of the manor of Tewington, and that..such tenements were held to the tenants, their heirs, and assigns from 7 years to 7 years renewable for ever.
1883 F. Pollock Land Laws App. 204 The peculiar conventionary holdings of the Cornish mining country, where the tenant has an inheritable interest, but must be re-admitted every seven years.
1884 Daily News 19 Mar. 2/6 Two heriots and the conventionary rent were demanded, equal to the ground rent being paid to the landlord five times over for that year.
B. n.
a. A conventionary tenant.
ΚΠ
1829 R. V. Barnewall & C. Cresswell Rep. Cases King's Bench 8 762 A class of tenants called free conventionary tenants, distinguished from free tenants, and from native conventionaries.
b. A conventionary tenure.
ΚΠ
1829 R. V. Barnewall & C. Cresswell Rep. Cases King's Bench 8 745 One messuage..to hold in conventionary from the feast of St. Michael in the 7 Ed. I., to the end of 7 years next following not completed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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adj.n.1602