chiefery

English

Etymology

chief +‎ -ery

Noun

chiefery (countable and uncountable, plural chieferies)

1. The status or role of a chief; chieftainship.
   • 1802, Sir Charles Coote, Statistical survey of the County of Cavan:

     "Then those lands in the County of Cavan which was O'Rilie's country are all holden of the King ; and because the captainship or chiefery of O'Rilie is abolished by act of Parliament by Stat. 2d of Elizabeth, and also because, two of the chief lords elected by the country have been lately slain in rebellion (which is an attainder in law), these lands are holden immediately of his Majesty.

   • 1809, Sir James Ware, Edmund Spenser, Saint Edmund Campion, Ancient Irish Histories, page 239:

     Roderic drew all his forces against him; Dermot Mac Moroogh sent to Robert Fitz Stephens, that in all haste he should draw forces to the ayde of Donald Prince of Limirike his sonne in law, which was accordingly affected, where Roderic was foyled, lost his chiefery, and with shame enough returned to his own country.

   • 2008, Lynn Schler, The Strangers of New Bell:

     Thus, in 1953, an individual named Paul Yana filed a complaint with the administration, claiming that in 1949 he had paid the Chef Supe/rieur of New Bell, Joseph Mongo, 15 000 francs, six bottles of Tuborg beer, three bottles of rum, one bottle of wine, and one sheep, in exchange for a promised chiefery, but that Mongo had not made the appointment.

2. The land ruled over by a chief; chieftainship.
   • 1901, Henry Adams, Tahiti: Memoirs of Arii Taimai, page 23:

     I have said that Tautira was a large and powerful chiefery on the eastern side of the peninsula Taiarapu, which was balanced by Teahupoo, another large chiefery at the southern end.

   • 1914, American Forestry - Volume 20, page 873:

     There was no king, but each district or chiefery had an independent ruler who inherited under the law of primogeniture and traced his descent by a most carefully-kept genealogical system to almost incredible antiquity.

   • 2000, J. F. Quinn, Brendan Quinn, History of Mayo - Volume 4, page 114:

     Their chiefery was co-extensive with the present barony of Clare, in Co. Galway.

   • 2016, Tamatoa Bambridge, The Rahui, →ISBN:

     According to the American historian Henry Adams, who first came to Tahiti in 1891 and recorded the memories of the elderly female chief Arii Taimai: Tavi's direct and full authority extended only over his own chiefery of Tautira, but by rank or courtesy, through his family connection or his influence, it extende over the whole island, and only Eimeo or Moorea was exempt.

3. The form of government in which people are ruled by a chief.
   • 1979, Bernardo Berdichewsky, Anthropology and Social Change in Rural Areas, →ISBN, page 63:

     The conquest of new territories made it possible for the Zarma society to settle in hamlets and develop a political organization that assumed the characteristics of a chiefery.

   • 2005, African Geopolitics - Issues 17-20, page 117:

     Charles Massi, one of his former ministers, who has become one of his fiercest opponents, declared that "Ange-Félix Patassé belongs to the school which mistakes the Presidency of the Republic for traditional chiefery.

   • 2013, Susan Gilson Miller, A History of Modern Morocco, →ISBN, page 118:

     Through his policy of the grands qa'ids, he brought an end to siba, or tribal dissidence, putting in its place a corrupt and archaic chiefery who oppressed the rural masses and held them perennially in check.

4. A colonial administrative centre.
   • 1911, The Overland Monthly, page 25:

     After dinner at the chiefery we assembled on the courtyard veranda to hear the singing of the Papara himeme chorus.

   • 1939, Leonard Wood Memorial for the Eradication of Leprosy, International Journal of Leprosy - Volume 7, page 286:

     These villages are located two or three kilometers from each chiefery or mission post.

   • 1980, The International Journal of Aging & Human Development, page 288:

     For example, when the European colonizers arrived, they demanded that a chief be appointed as the responsible party for the chiefery or administrative cell, according to a natural division of a territory.

5. The leaders or chiefs of a people, collectively.
   • 1971, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin - Issue 79, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 17:

     If, as seems certain, the Hui Arii contingent intermarried with the local chiefery, this acceptance of the gods of the land would have been inevitable.

   • 2003, William Camden, Britannia - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 123:

     This is for certaine known, that much about this time, he, together with the chiefery, or greatest men of Ulster, by secret parleys combined in an association that they would defend the Romish religion.

6. (historical) An Irish head tax
   • 1741, A Collection of the Parliamentary Debates in England, from the Year 1055, page 60:

     By procuring his Majesty to release to several Irish papists, some whereof were deeply engaged in the horrid rebellion of that kingdom, the chiefery's or head-rents reserved to the crown, out of the forfeited estates of papists Papists there, being a principal part of his majesty's revenue in that kingdom.

   • 1833, John Ryan, The history and antiquities of the county of Carlow, page 201:

     The man did not care to be referred to Mr. Matthews; and to give some colour to his pretensions, produced three different notes, with the names of his grace's commissioners put to them, expressing that he was to pay only a chiefery out of the lands of Shragh, and directing Mr. John Bagot the receiver to suspend the rent till further order.

   • 1993, Irish Economic and Social History - Volumes 19-21, page 10:

     The outsider was aware that payment of chiefery to the lord was the norm, but that some within the lordship were refusing to pay it.

   • 2010, Michael Innes, From London Far: The Unsuspected Chasm, →ISBN:

     The feu is therefore subject to the payment of chiefery, as also of teinds to the Synod of Argyll. Subject to these, I have little doubt that His Majesty would be pleased to regard our holding as inalienable.

Synonyms

• (role of a chief): chieftainship.
• (land ruled by a chief): chieftainship.
• leadership
• management