> as lemmas

a1402 J. Trevisa tr. Dialogus Militem et Clericum (Harl.) 33 Ȝif ȝe seyn nay, by cause of prescripcioun and custom, þat ȝe haueþ y-vsed in þe contrarie in longe fredome, we answereþ ȝou.

?c1430 (?1383) J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1871) III. 294 Ȝif coveitouse prestis han be in possession of oþere mennus goodis fourty ȝeer or þritti, wrongfully..þei may not be taken from hem..for þe vertu of prescripcion, bi long custom of synne, haþþe made hem lordis.

1483 Act 1 Rich. III c. 6 §1 Divers Fairs have been holden..by Prescription allowed afore Justices in Eyre.

1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng vi. f. 6 This is commen appurtenaunte by prescripcyon, bycause of the vse out of tyme of mynde.

1590 H. Swinburne Briefe Treat. Test. & Willes vi. f. 221 Where the probation and approbation of testamentes of the tenaunts there dwelling, dooth by prescription appertaine to the principall Lord.

1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine ii. xiii. 269 His title to this plain..is made lawfull by the prescription of three thousand years possession.

1682 Modest Enq. Election Sheriffs London 32 Nor were these Charters..Original Grants, but only Confirmations of what the City had by prescription possess'd and enjoy'd long before.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 194 'Tis said in our Law Books, that the Publick acquires a Right by Custom, but only private Persons acquire it by Prescription.

1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 223 If prescription be once shaken, no species of property is secure, when it once becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of indigent power. View more context for this quotation

1804 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. III. 524 This mode of acquiring property was well known in the Roman law, by the name of usucupio... In the English law it is called prescription.

1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 766 The positive prescription was introduced [into Scotland] by the act 1617, c. 12.

1895 F. Pollock & F. W. Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. ii. iv. 140 Many incorporeal things can be acquired by prescription, by long-continued use. In particular we may see this in the case of rights of common.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 966/2 There is an ancient corn-market, probably held by prescription.

1951 W. H. Jennings Canad. Law Bus. & Personal Use viii. 167 If a person has openly enjoyed the use of a right of way across another's land for twenty years, he acquires the right by prescription.

2009 R. J. Smith Property Law (ed. 6) xxiii. 510 The confectioner argued that he had acquired an easement to create the noise and vibration by prescription.