court-leet
English edit
Noun edit
court-leet (plural court-leets or courts-leet)
- (UK, law, historical) A court of record held once a year, in a particular hundred, lordship, or manor, before the steward of the leet.
- 1771, William, Sir Blackstone, “Of the People, Whether Aliens, Denizens, or Natives”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England[1], volume 1, page 368:
- This oath must be taken by all persons in any office, trust, or employment; and may be tendered by two justices of the peace to any person, whom they shall suspect of disaffection. And the oath of allegiance may be tendered to all persons above the age of twelve years, whether natives, denizens, or aliens, either in the court-leet of the manor, or in the sheriff's tourn, which is the court-leet of the county.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “court-leet”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)